Technology is a tool, and like any tool, the way we think about it impacts how we use it and how we ask our students to use it.\u00a0 We can use it to enhance traditional ways of learning and producing, such as word processing and memorizing.\u00a0 We can use it to increase participation, both between students inside the classroom and outside the classroom, through collaborative tools and multi-media. We can also use it to develop critical cultural skills of questioning and evaluating digital media and power structures.<\/p>\n

When we limit our view of technology to a digital pen and paper, we miss the ways students can increase their participation, build relationships, and develop cultural capital.\u00a0 For those students whose primary access to technology is through the classroom, this further widens the gap. When we use technology to allow for a variety of ways to access, evaluate, and develop knowledge, we demonstrate how we value multiple avenues of knowledge.<\/p>\n

As a classroom teacher when you become aware of the frameworks you use you can increase your choices of how to use the technology available to you.<\/p>\n