I have experienced a lot of the same reactions from teachers with respect to ET in the education profession, however I never thought that their resentment might be coming from a fear of becoming redundant. A lot of the feedback that I have received from individuals who are resistant to change with respect to technology is that they feel it somehow diminishes the ‘quality’ of the education they provide. They believe that incorporating technology into the learning process equates to a level of education that is lesser than a ‘traditional’ one. By traditional system of education, I am referring to a system that Silber identifies where the teacher is the ‘teller of information’. The resistance comes from not fully understanding the pedagogical change from ‘teller’ to ‘facilitator’. Teachers feel that they can teach the same lessons they have for the last decade and that technology impedes that teaching. What they fail to grasp is that the entire process of education has to change to keep up with the world that these students live in. How can a system whose goal is to prepare students for the world around them, not incorporate technology into the way students learn.

This is the key for me to ET. It is not just about the ‘stuff’ – the computers, the tablets, the smartphones, etc. Rather it is about teaching a new set of skills that allow students to be successful citizens. The types of decisions and the way that our students interact with each other has changed drastically over the last few years, and the education system is now struggling to catch up.

Once teachers come to realize that they don’t need to have all the answers when it come to technology, but rather they need to be able to guide students to find their own answers, the teaching profession becomes much more fulfilling.