Is it the new tool or good teaching?

I just finished reading Penrod's book Using Blogs to Enhance Literacy and she presents solid arguments about why blogging has a place in K-12 schooling. As she highlights blogs help engage student, create diversity in the learning environment and can serve as a bridge between the world of school and the world outside of school. As the book progresses her definition of blog seems to grow (including MySpace pages, IM and texting) and while I am not sure I agree with this term encompassing so many technologies, I can certainly see how maintaining a social network page with notes may be considered blogging - IM, texting and wikis seem to fall under different umbrella's in my book since they call upon related, but different skills.

Regardless of these terms though Penrod argues that blogging and mixed media creation holds great promise for students, teacher, and education. She claims that these modes can bridge disconnects, create student centered learning, promote differentiated instruction and lead to life long learning. I don't disagree with her claims, however, a tool is always just a tool until it is used by real people in context. I am not sure that the tool alone is going to change education - there needs to be a more fundamentally shift in pedagogy before there will be any changes in education. I can see many teachers taking the new technology and simply adapting the 5 paragraph essay - but put it on your blog - this is not going to be enough. Instead of looking at the tool or the software we must think more broadly about the context of education and what do we want students to know and be able to do? How will we know when they achieve? What do we do when they don't achieve? These questions will still plague educators if left unanswered.

I do not think Penrod feels that the tool alone will change everything, but I think too many people reading this kind of material might see it as a magic cure, when really engaging students in school and meaningful learning is going to take a lot more change then just using the new tools. It may start with the new tools, but it is going to take far more than this for lasting change.

This is where the technology, pedagogy and content knowledge (TPAK) model does have strength, since it suggests that teachers must work from all frames of understanding an issue to solve problems. I fear that Penrod's approach to blogs is grounded most in the technology of this new tool, and now we need to talk about how to make the pedagogical shifts necessary for true change to occur.