This technological revolution is different; it has the potential to fundamentally change the way we teach and the way students learn.
The sad reality is that most schools still believe that they are “teaching with technology” because they have a computer lab where they teach students important skills like word processing and how to create Power Point presentations.
we need to teach them how to find information and more importantly what to do with the information that they find
It’s no longer about who has the most information in their heads, it’s about who can find that information the fastest and who can do something with the information that they find.
The only way to do this is to make the fundamental change from teaching how to use technology to using technology to learn.
This model is fundamentally flawed because it teaches our students to be passive participants in the learning process.
With the advent of personal technology devices, we have the best opportunity of our careers to help students become more active participants in the learning process.
I actually think this is way over-hyped. A textbook is a great source of information, the web is a great source of information. Unless you can comprehend what is being said the method of delivery of the information is not very important. As was mentioned above - being able to do something with the information has always been the important point. There are times when I am sure that we could do better with a piece of chalk at the blackboard - I learn a lot from making demos in Mathematica and using PHET active java apps for chemistry and physics - the students enjoy them, but how much do they learn? There is plenty of evidence that until you sit down and work out the problems in a course you haven't learned much. I suspect much of this is driven by the prospect of sales of electronics - there is nothing you can do on a tablet that you shouldn't be able to do on a laptop. Especially with Win 8 coming and laptops with touch screens....