Response to Karl Fisch

The goal of education is to prepare students to be contributing members of society. Teachers hope to convey to their students both information and the means to utilize that information. What has not changed over the past 30 years is the type of information to be conveyed. The question becomes about conveying the means to utilize that information.
Certain of those skills are not connected to technology. Higher-order thinking skills do have a technological prerequisite. These skills can be taught to students without the teacher using technology or asking their students to use technology. And if students can learn the information and how to utilize it without technology, what is the role of technology in the classroom?
Technology is the medium of expression for both the information and the skills needed to utilize the information. Just as a man today can build and live in a house without electronic tools, students can be taught without electronic tools. But those students will be ill-prepared for 21st century society, just as a house without electricity would be ill-prepared for a freezing winter.
Teachers cannot ignore the medium of expression that students will be using in society. And it is quickly becoming true that technological literacy is as important today as reading and writing 30 years ago. 21st century society will require its citizens to communicate with technology, and a teacher unwilling to learn technological literacy is being irresponsible to their students.
Technology gathers myriad information that students can easily access. Technology provides an environment for students to easily learn and practice higher-order thinking skills. Technology will be the medium of expression that connects people together. And none of that can be ignored.

Adam Heinemann
University of Florida
ProTeach Graduate Student