Education Technology - Will It Save Education Part 2?

In my post yesterday, I brought up the idea that education technology is assumed to be the solution to all the problems facing education today, when in reality, they should be viewed as tools. And these tools need to be researched and evaluated carefully to make sure they fit in to the social and political structure of the learning environment and to make sure they will really do what is needed - improve teaching and learning.

But how do you know? If we are to believe advertisements, it's no wonder so much technology is purchased for schools. What I want to caution is that company's are trying to sell you the idea - make sure you research, analyze, evaluate and try new technology out to see if it fits and if it does what's promised, or else it's going to sit on a shelf gathering dust or worse, change nothing, or worse, hinder teaching and learning.

I thought it would be fun to share some of the advertisements I saw this morning in my daily reading of educational news. I am NOT supporting any of these products, simply pointing out that there are a lot of claims about the benefits of technology. Every article has a sponser - all magical solutions apparently. Hence my warning - be careful when selecting technology to 'improve' education - make sure it really works and is a good fit for your needs FIRST.

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