Technology for Technology's Sake

I've never liked the concept of technology for the sake of technology. What I mean by that is that I've never liked using technology on a reward/punishment system, as in "When you finish your work you may use the computer". For one thing, kids today are way to tech-savvy to fall for that. So they don't finish their work-so what? They've got I-Pods, MP3 players, video games, etc. If I can't use the technology now, I'll use it later-big deal!

The 21st century skills our students have to learn should not only include how to turn the computer off and on, and how to hook up to a couple of game sites that the kids can use to keep them quiet when they finish the lesson of the day. Our students will be competing with kids around the world, for whom technology is a part of their daily life. They need to learn not only how to turn the computer on, but what makes the computer function. I have a sister who is from the beginning of the baby boom generation who is still convinced that the computer has a squirrel on a treadmill that makes it work! She won't even learn how to use it, allowing her husband and son-in-law to send the family updated e-mails and stay in touch. If it's not a telephone, it's suspect.

Another problem that I have with the technology being a reward issue is the fact that many schools still look on computer usage being reserved for the computer lab class. Wake up, people! If we want our students to know how to use computers, so they can compete with others, we have to take the computer lessons our kids learn out of the lab setting. Computers have to stop being a lesson taught in isolation. Until school districts start integrating computers into all areas of education, and start showing students all of the things that computers can do, across the board, students are the losers in the education race. Science lessons on Leonardo da Vinci can't be complete without seeing his work from the Louvre and other venues. You can't study space without NASA space simulations. History has to include actual on-line visits to places like the Acropolis or Dachau, places students can go on-line. Wouldn't Thoreau's Walden Pond take on new meaning in the literature classroom if students could visit the actual Walden Pond and feel the serenity there?

Give it a try and tell me what you think.