Technology Does not Make Kids Better Learners

holtthink:

Will Richardson , in a post inspired by George Siemens had a very interesting quote at the end of his post:

“Technology does not make kids learn better; it allows kids to learn more if they want to. And it’s only when they want to learn more that they learn for the long term. If we started there in our discussions of what we do with ed tech in schools, our kids would be a lot better off. ”

This is, as they might say in England, spot on. If any teacher thinks that technology is some kind of magic bullet that suddenly makes slow learners fast learners, that suddenly turns poor readers into above grade level readers, that makes a poorly written lesson suddenly a well written lesson, then they are sadly mistaken.

As I have said over and over, technology is a tool. Yes, it is a powerful tool, yes, it can open up a new world where there was once a closed window, but no one should think just because a student got an iPad or a laptop that a C students will all of a sudden become a Honors student,

This idea keeps coming back to me and to Kevin Honeycutt’s famous quote about how the internet is the greatest buffet of knowledge ever created but most kids are eating the napkins.

We as educators have to show kids where the meat and potatoes are.
We as educators have to show our students where the important information is.
We as educators have to show our students how to mentally vet informaiton.
We have to show students the difference between facts and opinions.

Only then does technology make a difference.

One more to reblog this morning. This is why technology integration MUST be a calculated, delicate process.