Teaching is the Bottom Line

Kelly Hines' post on The Edurati Review entitled, "It's Not about the Technology," is insightful. Ms. Hines, showing that she is somewhat tech-savvy by indicating her technology use, goes to the heart of teaching in her subsequent statements. I think her first point, "Teachers must be learners," is profound. No matter how much we learn in pursuit of our degrees, certifications, or jobs, that learning does not - and must not - stop when we achieve our goal. Even in everyday life we are learning. As teachers, we should seek every opportunity to increase our knowledge and be able to better extend that knowledge to our students.
Ms. Hines states that, "Technology is useless without good teaching." Too true. For example, I was asked to teach a computer elective course in interim while a permanent teacher was sought. I did not have the necessary training to teach the course, but the classroom was equipped with Internet-accessible computers, so we had the technology. I devised a couple of projects that the students could complete , but couldn't really teach them much about the programs. There was a lot of trial and error. I think technology is a wonderful tool, and can be eminently useful in education. However, the teacher is still (and should be) at the heart of instruction.