Her elementary students have online pen pals in various countries, converse with NASA scientists about topics of interest, and contribute local wildlife data to a global database accessible by scientists and students around the world. Again, technology affords a shift in world-view to a more global notion of community and collaboration. Teachers must embrace this shift and capitalize on it pedagogically. Finally, and also related to arguments made above, technology has the potential to dramatically alter learning contexts. As a result, when watching instructional television in school, children simply fail to engage their full cognitive capacities in efforts to learn.
All technology has the potential to fail similarly.
Teachers must first begin to define contexts for learning differently and then treat technology resources as serious contexts for stimulating learning. Using technology only for games, drill and practice activities and Web-browsing reinforces the notion that technology and alternative media are less valuable as sources for learning than textbooks, the teacher, and other more commonly used materials. Because we believe that broadening contexts for learning undermines the power and authority of the teacher. We want students to view technology as being on an equal footing with the teacher and their textbooks. If we have led readers to conclude that technology holds the key to fundamental change in teaching, learning, and schools, then we have failed in our goal.