Participants in this module must be seeking lateral entry teacher certification from Western Carolina University. An overarching theme for this study will be the way that new tools participate in cultural change, a change which in turn continually changes the nature of teaching, learning and curriculum, a change which is uniquely accelerated in American education. Overview Today we understand the use of the term technology to mean the use of computers and related equipment. It is an interesting and useful term and yet it has its shortcomings. Our accent on technology seems to imply that what came before was not technology, but now technology is here and we must learn to use computers.
Historical continuity is lost.
Further, there is a false sense of cause and effect, that somehow the use of technology causes education to take place. None of these ideas are accurate. All allow a powerful industry to define important parameters of the educational agenda. This is not to say that technology is unimportant. In the cultural version of the biological debate about which came first, the chicken or the egg, it is useful to consider whether the tool came first, or some cultural need came first which new tools only accelerate.