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So what, then, is the answer? If technology is embraced by some and rejected by others, how can elementary and secondary school students be expected to know the right way to learn? It seems that the answers are about as clear as mud. I believe that technology has provided the swift kick that K-12 education has needed for decades to make the sweeping adjustments required to reach contemporary students and inspire education. I am just not sure yet which traditional teaching elements deserve to be clung to and which ones are meant for the curb.

Goal #3 Technology's Function: Personalization

Goal #1 Technology's Function: Reach

Goal #2 Technology's Function: Bells & Whistles Education's Goal: Engagement & Enthusiasm

Helping kids develop strategies like self-regulation will allow them to use their own initiative and to direct themselves — without adult supervision.

it’s important to develop kids’ learning strategies so they stay on topic while they use these tools.

Teach kids to set an attainable goal — not one that’s out of reach.

Technology is the driving force behind most of the education innovation. It is impacting not only what we can do as educators, but it is also changing how we approach learning. These innovations may have not all reached the education journals yet, but they have been presented and are being discussed digitally and at great length in social media.

Information from technology may be easily accessed, but it is not yet a passive exercise. It requires effort and an ability to learn and adapt. These are skills that all educators have, but many may not always be willing to use. The status quo has not required educators to use these skills in a long time. Using these skills requires effort and leaving a long-standing zone of comfort in order to learn and use new methods of information retrieval.

They need to be the life-long learners that they want their students to be.

read the Internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it would take you 57,000 years to reach the end. You could bind the pages in a 10,000-foot-tall book weighing 1.2 billion pounds.

Just like we wouldn't allow a 16-year-old who has never driven to go on a solo trip in our new car, we have a responsibility to guide our students in discerning good technology usage. When teachers say, "No, I don't want it in my classroom," they are limiting potential for their learning environment and for each student individually.  We must reach beyond our fears, hesitantly if need be, and embrace change and technology so our students can be future-ready.