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Some of the thinking articulated in this article captures the gridlock of public conversation around the issue of technology in the classroom. I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a colleague in which he was telling me about the many interesting ways he uses powerpoint for instruction. I asked him he ever had his students use powerpoint and he scoffed, "Powerpoint for student presenations is a Middle School right of passage. Please. They're terrible." I told him that if he didn't think powerpoint was a useful means of communication than he wouldn't use it. The fact is we don't teach kids how to use powerpoint well and so they don't use it well. The argument about tech in Ed is much the same. Sometimes when I hear or read about these discussions I think of someone who has an F-14 in his front yard complaing that it is terrible for hanging laundry on. The promise of teaching well in a 21st century classroom focuses on cultivating different skills and more dynamic learning than standardized tests seek to quantify.