I guess to begin to answer that question, we first need to ask what should we define as technology?

Technology has invaded every part of our lives; so much so that what was once unbelievable, ceases to even be thought of as technology. Do you think about turning on a light switch or starting the dishwasher as using technology? There was a time not too long ago that those items were thought of as state-of-the-art, cutting edge technology. People gathered around to watch a single light bulb flicker on, and a dishwasher was the unfortunate sibling that drew the short straw after dinner, at least that’s the way it was at my house growing up.

Today, what do we consider to be technology? Cell phones… computers… the Internet? Those items are becoming more and more like the light switch. A free flip-phone, not so much… but an iPhone? Yes, definitely.

So it seems to be that over time what used to be considered “high tech” and cool becomes “low tech” once something better is made available. Is a VCR still considered to be technology – not so much. Basically we consider technology to be something new, not necessarily something that is simply electronic or a “gadget”.

Webster defines technology as “the practical application of knowledge”. Initially that is not how I would have defined technology. However, we wouldn’t have the iPhone without the perceived need for it, nor would it exist without what was learned in building and using its predecessor, the flip-phone, and the rotory phone before it, and the radio… – not just on the engineering side but on what is possible and expected from the human side. This is also why we have the concept of “new” things being implicitly considered technology but the concept is sort of lost once something has become common place. We continually apply “the next practical application” principle to what we see and use every day.

So back to my initial question – what role should technology play in our lives and in the case of ALL In Learning specifically, what role should technology play in education?

As this technology continues to penetrate all K-12 classrooms, it is vital that teachers across K-12 classrooms understand the strategies for implementing interactive, data gathering technologies. Each classroom in the 21st century should be a rich formative assessment classroom and technology is the key to deliver that juggernaut in an efficient and academically successful manner.

The following is a great example of our girls and deep structure vs surface structure.

A few days ago, we were all watching an episode of The Andy Griffith Show. The show was about a young man learning to take responsibility for his own actions (the moral of the story). The young man’s dad was a very powerful politician in the state of North Carolina and had bailed him out of every poor decision he had ever made. He gets in an accident in Mayberry and is arrested by Sheriff Taylor for hit-and-run. While arrested he goes fishing with Andy and Opie, has Sunday dinner with them etc… While with the Taylor’s, Andy makes Opie pay for a window he breaks while playing baseball. The young man thinks Andy is being too hard on Opie but Andy tells him, “Opie has to learn to pay for broken windows and stand on his own two feet”.

At the end of the episode, the politician’s lawyer coerces the person the young man hit in order to get the young man out of jail. The young man decides to stay in jail and finish his sentence saying “tell my Dad I broke a window and have to stand on my own two feet”.

My Samoan girls did not understand his statement because the young man didn’t break a window. They didn’t get the deep structure concept of taking responsibility. They only saw the surface structure of the examples of breaking a window and wrecking a car.

The understanding of deep structure is what we are all after. Taking responsibility is an abstract concept while paying for broken windows and cars are concrete examples of this abstract concept. Exposing our kids to as many concrete examples and helping them understand the underlying abstract concepts is one of the primary goals of the classroom and must be done over and over for them to begin looking for the abstract concepts being taught.