Technology enabling relationships

Blogging’s been light this week due to a instructional decision to give exams in all three classes on the same day a couple weeks ago and then dealing with the grading fallout, plus having to get an actual print article finished by deadline. Let me ease back into it by sharing this quote by Seymour Papert that I just found, which really sums up my thoughts about teaching and technology:

The best teacher is someone who brings personal knowledge, warmth and empathy to a relationship with a learner. The effect of the new technologies is to provide better conditions for such teachers to work directly with their students. Of course tele-teaching has a role, but I hope it will never be the primary form.

That was from 1997, but it rings true today as well. It’s easy to forget these days that education is a fundamentally human thing, and at bottom it’s about relationships (and trust). One of the great purposes of technology in education is to enable and enhance those relationships -- not to replace them.

(h/t to The Daily Papert blog)