Interesting op-ed in the Washington Post by a 30-year English teacher at an Alexandria, Va. school that just spent $98 million on renovations and technologies that none of the teachers want to use.

…faculty morale is the lowest and cynicism the highest I’ve seen in years. The problem? What a former Alexandria school superintendent calls “technolust” — a disorder affecting publicity-obsessed school administrators nationwide that manifests itself in an insatiable need to acquire the latest, fastest, most exotic computer gadgets, whether teachers and students need them or want them. Technolust is in its advanced stages at T.C., where our administrators have made such a fetish of technology that some of my colleagues are referring to us as “Gizmo High.”

Features the required “technology is just a tool” response at the end as well.

Just two points. First, from a money standpoint, the true leaders in this discussion are the ones who are doing the job of convincing the school boards and communities who want “sexy” technologies at a high price that there are more democratic and pedagogically sound alternatives that are cheap or free and that what really turns any of this into learning is a culture that learns with technology in the first place, not just implements it. And second, read the comment by “CFoote.” (Anyone we know???)

What saddens us most is that we see a generation of experienced teachers (and we’ve been teaching almost as long), folding their arms, and resisting change instead of modeling a profound fascination with how transformative tools have become so readily available for our students.

Amen to that.