When talking about the use of technology within educational settings, it’s common to hear people say “It’s not about the technology; it’s about the teaching.” While ultimately, who you are as a teacher and the pedagogical philosophies and values you embrace should inform everything you do in the classroom, the relationship between teaching and technology is actually more complicated and nuanced than this statement suggests. In reality, technologies have always offered us new ways to think about and consider the world, and, in doing so, they often point us in new directions. It may be that a certain kind of tool offers you the opportunity to engage with your students in ways you never could before or allows students to participate in the creation and sharing of knowledge in ways that were never available to them before. To that end, we invite you to approach technology with a mindset of “searching for possibilities.”
The other assumption baked into the “it’s not about the technology” mindset is that somehow technology, by playing a secondary or “background” role in the classroom, can be assumed to be neutral. In reality, technology is never inherently “neutral,” “objective,” or “fair.” All technology is developed and created by humans who have their own agendas and goals, and the tech they produce reflects these. When we assume neutrality to technology, we often overlook how it might cause our students harm or interfere with our pedagogy in unexpected ways.
Finally, it’s important to remember that this topic is not just about how we teach with technology but what we teach about technology. Our students’ lives are deeply impacted by and inflected by the technologies they use. We have the opportunity to help them become more discerning digital citizens, capable of using technology in ways that are both competent and ethical.
