9 Technology to Support Learning

Technology is sometimes used as another word for magic. The reality is that technology is just another word for tool. Research that tries to determine whether technology is useful to learning is as misguided as research into whether tools are useful to carpentry. The question is not whether tools are useful, but which tools to use under which circumstances and to what end.

Invariably, when someone uses the word "technology," they are referring to some sort of electronic system, or occasionally some sort of chemical process used in manufacturing. To paraphrase McLuhan, it wasn't a fish that discovered water; we have become so immersed in most human technology that we no longer see it as such. A chalk and chalkboard are technology, as were the wax tablets and styluses used by the ancient Romans. Our clothing, or even a simple stick used by a chimp to disrupt an anthill qualifies as technology. The question of whether tools in general are useful is absurd; but somehow using the word "technology" in place of "tools" causes the question to arise.

Just as a carpenter wouldn't try to use a screwdriver where a hammer should be used, an educator shouldn't assume that any tool is useful in any situation. As McLuhan suggested every tool augments some human function we already perform. The essential step in reviewing what tool to use, is to consider which function we want to augment, and choose accordingly. The expectation the technology is some form of wizardry that will accomplish our ends for us with no intervention on our part is the main misconception that needs to be overcome for the field of instructional technology to be successful.