Palm Pilots for 4th Graders?
A colleague of mine and I have been having a debate recently - is 4th grade too early to introduce palm-pilots? I am taking the opposite perspective that I usually do - I think kids should learn how to use a paper and pencil before they learn to use palm pilots to organize their lives. This way, they will have a better appreciation of the role technology plays when it helps us do things that used to be done manually.
The debate comes down to a question fundamental to technology: is it important to know how to do things without the aid of technology? I for one think that it is important. I think it is important for kids to learn to add, subtract, multiply, and divide before they learn to use a calculator. I think it is important for kids to learn how to draw on paper before they learn to draw on the computer. Why? Personally, I don't buy the argument that the technology won't always be there to help out. In most cases, a people can just wait until they are near a computer to do addition or subtraction - and as we move toward the future, more and more people will have cell phones/PDAs to handle this sort of thing.
I think it is important to learn how to do things the "analog" way so that we can appreciate and better understand the technology we have. For example, if I am using photoshop I might not be familiar with all of the tools available. Tools such as "dodge" and "burn" would not have the same meaning to me if I had only seen them in Photoshop, and had never seen a "real" photograph developed. Because I know how something was done before technology, it allows me to better use the technology designed to replace it.
It is also important that people know how to interact with the real world in addition to the cyber world. Socialization is a perfect example of something that can be done on the computer through IM, email, & chatrooms, but can never give as rich an experience as actually talking to people. Technology has the power to make our lives more interesting and productive, but becomes dangerous when we use it to replace things that may be more enriching when done in "the real world". If too many of our tasks are computerized, then we will forget that we even have the choice of doing things the "analog" way.

Spelling or Communicating?
As an educator, "Things That Make Us Smart" has enticed me to reflect on how technology affects learning. Norman explains how computers help us make "artifacts", which we use instead of memorizing things. In the same way that memorizing figures is no longer important, several other skills traditionally taught in schools have also become outdated of late.
Luddites often allege that kids today don't know how to spell or write gramatically because of the influence of computers. I in turn ask why spelling will be important when spell-check will be available any time the student will be writing. Indeed, I think that the ability to represent things representationally and in an abstract form may be a more important skill. Too often, we get bogged down in the specific skills without thinking about the larger goal, in this case creating effective communicators. In a world where global trading is prevalent, the ability to effectively create a graph or chart to represent an idea will be valued much more than the ability to spell effectively.
Of course, the ability to write is an extremely important skill - and one that a computer can not do for us. I think that computers have the ability to make our students better writers. It is not just the ability to easily revise, print, and do other basics that can make stronger writers. I acutally think spell-check can make better writers. I have seen several kindergarten teachers encourage their student to write using "invented spelling". The idea is that students should not get bogged down in the spelling of words, but should instead scribble more than if they had to ask or agonize about the spelling of each word. For older students, spellcheck can provide that same boost. It can allow them to write without the need to repeatedly look up the spelling of words, and thus concentrate on their ideas.