Shiny New Toys

Image by bensheldon via Flickr

I recently saw this post in my Twitter feed -

Need something new for a 5th grade teacher who has done a lot with tech - moodle, wikis, glogster, animoto, mixbook - ideas

I don't know the teacher being referred to or anything about that teacher's classroom practices. I am not judging that individual teacher in any way.

However, the suggestion of this post is the kind of thing that sometimes frightens and concerns me about the infusion of technology into the 21st century classroom.

There are people I have met in the course of my work who are completely and absolutely enamored with the technology. They have lost focus on the pedagogy and it has become all about the tech. They can't wait to get to the next shiny, new thing in the Web 2.0 toy box.

The post precipitates the question, "Has the teacher who has 'done a lot with tech' also done a lot with math, English, science, and social studies?" I hope the answer is yes.

Furthermore, are this teacher's students benefiting demonstrably from all of this immersion in technology? Is it sound and cogent? Is all this tech enhancing the learning process in this classroom?

We need to be thoughtful and cautious in all this experimenting we do in the classroom with our sparkly toys. We need to keep our eye on the prize, stay focused, do no harm to those we are pledged to teach.