A good 48 hours later and I'm still very comfortable with my definition for technology. But, I want to make sure that I'm clear on one particular part. In my ramblings I mentioned quite a few things that might not qualify as technology for our students. I did not mean in any way that we didn't need to teach those things to our students.
Again with the pencil analogy: no one will argue about whether or not a pencil is technology (and by that I mean that of course some one will argue about whether or not a pencil is technology, but that someone is an idiot), but one of the first things that students learn in school is how to correctly use a pencil. Who knows how many hours students spend with lined paper diligently tracing, crafting, and creating lines and letters with this new tool.
We need to be just as careful and diligent with the teaching of every tool that we use. I'm sick of hearing that students already know how to use the internet, that they know more about computers than their teachers do, they they grew up with this stuff. The fact of the matter is that they do not know how to use the internet, they do not know how to use search engines, they barely even know how to use their cell phones. We still need to set them down with whatever lined paper is appropriate and teach them to use the tools necessary to utilize the technology that will make them the learners of today and the leaders of tomorrow.
...and if you are one of those teachers that claims that students know more about your computer than you do, I seriously hope that you are either being humble, or are prepared to work as hard and fast as possible to get back to the level where you can be a teacher for the students of today.
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