We need to make sure that there's art in the school. Why? Why should art be in the school? Because if art isn't in a school, then a guy like Steve Jobs doesn't get a chance to really express himself because in order for art to meet technology, you need art.
LL Cool J 

I sense that the tenor of my posts is often negative, but that's not really how I feel about the world of technology. I love the way I can find sources, information, entertainment, or friends in the blink of an eye. I'm an information junkie; the web provides me with the means by which I can satisfy my need to know as fast as I can think up things to think. As it were.

However! I do want to address the issue of balance. Like any other new-ish thrust in the world of education, and in fact, in the consumer-culture we live in, technology is holding center stage pretty securely. We are allowing Big Tech to monologue, and this is a source of frustration and failure on our parts. We should consider what we hope to achieve, before we jump immediately to the tech component. This is not to say it's not useful, and in the right hands, and with the right amount of pre-planning and intention, great things can, and have, been achieved already. What concerns me the most, though, is the imbalances that are now apparent in many schools, and in our culture, today. The misuse of technology, and the over-reliance on computers and other digital media, has caused a shift away from the other elements of an education that make us whole humans. We desperately need art, music, literature, play time, thinking time, and drama. And not the sort of "drama" that comes from social media kvetch-fests. If technology can be used to enhance what we have traditionally treasured, and not replace it, then we'll be doing okay. I mean, I love the fact that I can take a virtual tour of the Louvre; I would like to still see it exist and thrive in the real world as well. I fear, though, that because we can visit it virtually, people will not go and do and see, and thereby cause the demise of that fine institution. And so it goes for concerts, plays, and other forms of human-created, human-enacted, forms of art and culture. We should be educated, wary, and informed consumers and users of the tech available to us, and we should take it upon ourselves to guide our students wisely as well.