Let me give you the background before I share my fear…I have been working with two of my math teachers as they gave their students the challenge of teaching their peers one of several topics. They were given the world in terms of options – anything they wanted to make or to use to get their point across (well, anything within reason) was permissible. We had kids creating movies, music, taking pictures of work they’d done on mini whiteboards, getting used to using the interactive whiteboard, etc.

Here’s what scared me though…After making all these great materials to – theoretically – share their knowledge effectively with their peers, what did they do? They got up in front of the class, turned to face the board and lectured to it!

How frightening is THAT? It makes me realize that no matter how magnificent the tools, no matter how ‘scalable’ the technology, our kids will share in the way they see US sharing. If day-in-and-day-out we stand up there and lecture at them, that’s what they’ll do when called to share in return. Even if they hate it when they’re sitting through it, they’ll do it too – because they copy what they’ve seen US do…

I don’t think teachers need to be experts on every type of technology that exists but we DO need to craft our image carefully, vary our practice intelligently, and mentor continually or we’re doing a HUGE disservice to our kids.

Okay, don’t know if that really applies to your comment about scalability…I guess I’m just trying to say that if we don’t make our teaching practices rich, varied, and innovative all the tech in the world (scalable or otherwise) won’t mean that much.