Technology and Renewal Technology and Renewal Technology is making it possible to do things in the classroom that just a few years ago we could not even have dreamed about. It seems to be a fact of human existence that new technologies are first used to do old things more efficiently. For example, the first use of electricity was to produce light, and not to run a computer. In fact, the development of the computer had to await the discovery of electricity. The existence of a machine such as a computer would have been hard to even envisage in the days when electricity was first harnessed to produce light.
New uses come with new ways of thinking about education and technology.
If schools continue to emphasize the accumulation of information, continue to employ didactic instruction, and continue to view students as empty vessels that need filling, then students have no need for the rich information resources on the Internet. It is only now that we are beginning to envisage new ways of learning that could not have existed before the advent of the computer. As you continue with this course, you are invited to keep asking yourself about the feasibility of doing things that you could not even have imagined a few years ago. But remember, the key factor is to have a vision of what teaching and learning should look like in your classroom. Technology may help you get there, but it may not.