My most appealing technology metaphors from the list are Jonassen’s idea of technology being something students learn with rather than from. His concept of “Mindtools” as a category of technology which supports this meaning-making truly resonated with me. My unspoken definition of “technology” places an emphasis on the rich potential of the tool to enhance student exploration, creation, communication, and collaboration in our perpetual quest for deeply connected “learning”. Dede’s notion that technology includes interactive media which are “tools in service of richer curricula…” accurately describes many of the examples I would have chosen to illustrate what pedagogically-minded technologies might look like.
Ideally, the designers of the learning experience should also be the deliverers of those very same experiences, so that their TELEs can be crafted to cater to the unique (and changing!) affordances and constraints of a real group of children in a real place, rather than a one-size-fits-all plan or program. When otherwise, designers should be required to pilot their designs as the only adult in actual classrooms from several different socioeconomic neighbourhoods before marketing their products or handing down their initiatives. In other words, how would I design a TELE? It depends!