There is little argument that the most significant change in the way in which we teach and learn over the last decade has been education technology. Technology has revolutionized the way we teach and learn by making inroads in the field of education and assisting teachers and students alike. But there are a number of problems that arise when we integrate technology into the classroom and harness its power to assist the process of learning, especially when it comes to secondary education and K12 students.

The downside to rapidly advancing educational technology, is that it keeps changing in the blink of an eye; what’s relevant today is outdated tomorrow; and by the time we get up to speed and learn to understand one, we are bombarded with ten more programs or gadgets that are more sophisticated and advanced than the ones we are used to. Using technology in education is a task that needs to be researched and tested for viability before it is implemented. And once put into practice, it cannot be discontinued in order to accommodate a newer version or better program.

For one, it takes time for both teachers and students to get used the new system and way of doing things. And for another, it takes money and other valuable resources to invest in technology and implement the same. But when you don’t stay up to date, the students are at a disadvantage because they are not getting the most out of the technology that is available.

Another problem that we face in using technology in education is that most teachers are not in favor of changing their tried and tested methods to accommodate the new technology. Either they are reluctant to learn new things or they are scared to try the technology because they feel they may be inadequate at it. Children are remarkably sharp when it comes to learning how to use technology, so most teachers feel their authority slipping away from them when they are not used to the technology but the children are.

The only ways that technology can be efficiently used in a classroom are when the teachers are given enough training, when the technology is used effectively to enhance learning specific to a subject and improve general education skills, and when it is easily upgradable without the investment of too much time or money.

I recently came across a discussion on an education technology forum titled “Educational Technology – 7 Deadly Sins”. One of those sins caught my attention as I felt it was completely relevant in today’s world – teaching the tool instead of teaching literacy.

Most of us have jumped on the ICT in education (Information and Communication Technology) bandwagon and are proud of the same. There’s an innate feeling of accomplishment and of moving with and staying in step with the times. But are we really using technology in the most effective way? Are we extracting all that we can out of it for the good of learners around the world?

These questions can only be answered with ambiguous answers, because, as I said before, most of us are guilty of teaching the tool rather than teaching what’s supposed to be taught. Let me illustrate further with an example – when teaching a child to use the Internet to search for information, we would normally introduce them to search engines and get them to type the keywords they are looking for. Anyone with a little common sense can do this much. The hard part comes after this, when you need to analyze the millions of results the search engine throws up and get just the information you are looking for.

Going a step further, the search engines we have today are not intelligent; that is, they are not capable of thought the way human beings are. They are just machines that trawl the Internet at rapid speeds and bring back pages that contain the keywords you entered. Let’s say you entered a keyword that means two different things depending on its usage, like the word “stool”; it could mean either a low, three-legged piece of furniture or bodily excretion. You may be searching for the latter, but the search engines do not know that. They bring up pages with references to both, and if you don’t know anything about the subject you are searching for, well, you’re going to end up learning a whole lot of mixed and incorrect information.

It’s not enough to just teach children how to use technology in their quest for an education; what’s more important is that they learn intuitively how to maximize the use of this technology to develop their own skills, to further their talents, and to enhance the way their thought processes work. Only then can we say that technology has truly played its part in helping children gain a valuable education!