How far can we go?????

I was following a blog about the 21st century educator and started to realize that I am already developing technological habits. Currently I do a lot of data assessment while planning curriculum. Our school also uses many software programs to help enable kids who struggle with paper and pencil…. One program even allows students to write to one-another across the globe.

Being a person who did not grow up with cable, Playstation, or MTV, how far will technology take us and will there be a wall that we hit? Have the current types of calculators diminished our capacity to understand concepts or are we just concerned with results. Spell check is a great tool to help us write but, does it hurt how we spell or write when not on a computer? How far will technology take us before paper and pencil are obsolete? Is this our goal?

One major benefit of technology could be the economical reduction of material expenses. Could text books become obsolete? Will complete educational programs that cost a district around $80,000 be reduced to a mere $15,000? Paper notebooks and pencils will be replaced by key pads. Encyclopedias are already obsolete in favor of the internet; and now bloggers. L.C.D. projectors capture web sites from the computer and post them onto interactive white boards. Will chalk and slate boards disappear as did the dinosaur? We seem to have limitless possibilities though I hope we don’t forget the basics.