For many of us who have used and will continue to use technology this is nothing more than a “well, duh” statement.  Put very well, mind you, but for those of us who have struggled with the issues of how best to integrate technology into our classroom it’s more than glaringly obvious, it’s as much a fact of life as breathing.  Yet with that being said, it’s another perfect example of a wonderful blog post that will rarely reach the audience it needs to.  It’s up to us in the Twitter-verse to be sure it does.  Re-tweeting it is one thing.  Sending the link in an email to your non-Twitter colleagues and saying you found out about it on Twitter is another.

As for me, I’m going to be doing just that to the staff I coach because I want them to realize just because I’m coming in to help them improve their technology integration doesn’t mean I don’t value them as a teacher or that I believe in any way shape or form that they are replaceable by a 10 inch screen, 104 keys and a fast internet connection.  An 11 inch screen maybe.

I would, however, like to add a small addendum to Josh’s piece.  While technology may not be a game changer on its own in the grand scheme of things, it is certainly the game changer in my career. I am finally able to realize ideas and beliefs I have held about teaching and learning for years because the technology has finally created situations that facilitate their implementation in ways I could never have imagined without it.

I am totally on board with what Josh is saying: unless it was me in the driver’s seat implementing those ideas and beliefs and driving the change, then the technology would be nothing more than a Lamborghini shaped paper-weight. And yes, I am a firm believer that a well-thought out and well-practiced vision of technology implemented on two dusty old desktop computers is better than a class-set of netbooks being used as game/listening stations. But sometimes people need a spark, something to inspire them and light that fire to make them see possibilities they were otherwise unaware of.  While I fully appreciate and endorse what Josh is saying, I still think that spark is more likely to occur with the Lamborghini that is Web 2.0 and a class set of netbooks as opposed to the bicycle that is the dusty old desktops and Word ’97.