But is it a teaching tool?

This is the question confronting schools around the world. Technology can be a great source of enrichment to a curriculum and teaching, and technology can be a great source of distraction from the core meaning of a lesson. I believe that the right technology, in the right hands, at the right age can empower students and connect them to the global community of people and ideas.

Integrating Technology and Curriculum

Some of these technology tools help with academic basics such as phonics and writing and may be adjusted to a child’s individual academic level. Other technology tools can deepen the curriculum. Listening to audio of John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King can make their ideas unforgettable, particularly for students who are auditory learners. Our second graders make pod casts about frontier life, which is a creative and meaningful way to engage with ideas while developing reading, writing, presentation and collaboration skills. After mummifying chickens as part of their study of Ancient Egypt, our sixth graders wrote myths about their mummies and used GarageBand software to turn those myths into songs.

Developing Cultural Understanding

Beyond these wonderful uses, technology can accomplish something I am passionate about: getting to know, and understand, all kinds of people. Broadcasting a pod cast from a second grader to a grandparent in Florida, being a pen-pal with a student in Iraq, or corresponding with a teacher in the Netherlands about Ancient Egypt brings us closer together.

As I listened to that Red Sox game on my cell phone, I was happy that Manny Ramirez hit the game-winning RBI. Yet what really intrigued me was the utter silence from Japanese fans when a batter was up. I hadn’t known that.