It may be simplifying things way too much, but I find myself returning to two basic questions that seem to frame the change conversations were having, in my mind at least:
1. What can technology do better than we can when it comes to educating kids?
2. What can we do that technology can’t?
I know the answer to the first question depends on how you define “education.” But if you more or less define it as “passing the test” (which many do), then I think there’s a whole bunch of ways that technology in its various forms and, specifically, in it’s ability to personalize curriculum and assessment can and will do a better job than teachers in getting to that result.
Which is why I think we really need to focus on #2 when it comes to reframing the narrative around the value and purpose of schools. Certainly, we need to push back against the test in as many ways as we can, but as I alluded to yesterday, we also have to start articulating a different value, a more important value, an irreplaceable value for our roles as teachers and schools.
So, what can we do that technology can’t?