Take away from the Harvard panel on technology in the classroom: when students keep laptops open in the classroom, they learn less.
My thoughts—the traditional role of teachers and the current role of technology don’t mesh—I concur. Looking into the future I believe that the role both play will drastically change to yield great efficiencies. I think the teacher will come to be more mentor and guide and less of a knowledge base. You just cannot compete with technology as a knowledge base. And I believe that technology will come to displace—not compete with—teaching more and more. Right now it is a distraction because the teacher is teaching, technology is a peripheral distraction. In the future, the technology will teach, and the teacher will be a peripheral guide.
You can read the highlights of the panel here.
