For us teachers and education leaders, this moment of rapid and radical technological change is not what we signed up for, is it? A trillion web pages; a billion smartphones; movies, TV shows, newspapers, and novels on demand, wherever we are, whenever we desire; near ubiquitous courses and coursework, with teachers, tutors, and technologies that let learners of any age learn whatever they want, whenever and wherever they desire. "Always on" access has created an abundance of learning potentials that scarcely existed even a decade ago.
The spirit of technology use, and being 'NetSmart' as Howard Rheingold puts it lies with the people and the ways in which the tools are exploited. It is rather useless to force an educator to "use the interactive whiteboard". It is certainly not going anywhere near the "technology-rich learning". To be able to start getting a glimpse at what it really means to teach with technology we have to change our way of teaching completely and focus first on our learners and on the activities that learners can do. I keep emphasising, technology is not about maintaining teacher control, but it is of giving the learners the freedom to learn, unlearn and relearn.
Good insight into educational technology, sifting through the abundance of options