Technology use in lessons

When reading Bob Coulter’s article What’s It Like Where You Live?, I kept waiting for the relation between this article and technology. I was a couple pages in and thought I must have skipped over something because I did not see how this related to our technology class. Then I got to the part that talked about technology. Coulter said, “…it is only in the context of rich experiential background that technology use is appropriate for elementary students.” I realized that the author could not explain how technology was incorporated into his unit until he fully explained and gave background knowledge to the reader. This is an interesting point because I often feel like technology is just thrown into a unit, just to say that technology was used. Coulter makes another good point when he says, “The key is for inquiry to drive the technology implementation and not vice versa, despite pressures to integrate technology into the classroom.” There has to be a purpose for the technology used. I think there is an assumption that not using technology means you as a teacher are resisting using technology. But that is not necessarily the case. Sometimes a lesson or a unit does not need technology to enhance what is being learned and that should be ok.