While on business travel I recently read an article in the Harvard Business Review that suggested technology was outpacing evolution. Though I don't want to necessarily initiate an argument on the validity of the evolutionary process, it did initiate my thinking on our use, as educators, of available technological resources.

We have sought creative ways to integrate technology into our learning environments to support teaching, enhance communication challenges with our students and speak the language that today's learner understands. It is no doubt an excellent tool!

Perhaps though the question is - from an educational perspective, has technology itself, in all of its abilities and options, surpassed the very learning it is designed to enable? Has it also outpaced our social abilities? I rarely attend even a social function anymore where texting, emailing and playing with a technological wonder toy is far more common than engaging conversation. And I am first on the list!

As we engage our instructors in faculty development, I hope we encourage them, as well as ourselves, to give our students a chance to think, to articulate, to form a value judgment and to process information in the mind as opposed to on an instrument.

Technology is indeed wonderful, but to keep- up with its pace, let's put it in perspective - it should be a valued tool of support, not the driver of the process.