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High-tech texts (or: all the cool kids are doing it)

So last week I put together a lengthy post on how the spread of technology can help resolve the ongoing problems in textbook selection.  What timing!  Melissa Wiley, who wrote here, here and here on the related issue of selecting a homeschool curriculum, also has an Edspresso article out today on the same subject.  (Side note: Melissa is hosting this week’s Carnival of Education, which links to my post from last week.)  And Mike Petrilli also wrote here about harnessing high-tech in the classroom. 

Let’s explore this just a bit further.  Possibly one of the most exciting aspects of this is the liberty it allows educators to innovate.  Melissa’s posts indicate a dizzying array of curriculum options (some of which, in the best traditions of the Internet, come free of charge).  Just think of the freedom that could be extended to public schoolteachers if they were allowed a bit of flexibility to build their own curriculum.

However, a potential trainwreck could be on the way, especially after reading Mike’s thoughts on reliance on technology:

To be sure, well-conceived technology could make inexperienced teachers more effective, and might even allow for larger teacher-to student-ratios. Yet great teachers have little to fear on this score. The best media tools in the world won’t be half as effective without an informed, passionate instructor guiding them through it.

Mike said this in connection with the potential barrier of teachers’ unions stonewalling efforts to pour more money into classroom technology.  (For a huffy response, visit NCLBlog.)  But where I see that some educators could (rightly) complain about this is the use of technology as a crutch.  As Sarah has pointed out here and here, improved technology via calculators may have inflicted harm on students’ ability to grasp mathematics. 

So increased technology cuts both ways: increased opportunities for creative liberty, and increased opportunities for intellectual laziness.  How do we find the middle ground?