My daughter recently asked me, “Do Smartboards make students smarter?” I was taken aback by the random nature of this question from this asker, but saw she was holding in her hand an article from the NEA Today magazine, written by Rosita Force, a technology teacher from Omaha. I hadn’t read the article yet, but my response echoed Ms. Force in that technology these days has become so insanely helpful it confuses and scares many teachers. To that end, I answered that it is not simply using the technology, but how a teacher uses technology that helps students grow. Teachers who advocate technology use have our favorites, but I often have to step back and ask myself, is this application or tool really helping grow the child and his or her thinking, or is it just a neat way to do the same thing? Is the technology making my teaching easier or their learning better? Could I teach a concept just as effectively (or efficiently) without teaching a new application or tool, simply because it’s there or because my students will more readily engage?
For the learning itself, we need to be extremely critical thinkers, as models and practitioners, so that when we push learners to think outside of the box, we’re not just pushing them into a different, digital box.
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