Technology marches forward. Many aspects of technology improve our lives (the Internet makes it possible for us to deliver Learning A-Z's rich resources in an affordable way), but it can be daunting to keep up with the pace of all the technological advances. Nevertheless, we cannot afford to fall behind.

Last year, Karl Fisch, director of technology for Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, posted a blog titled "Is It Okay to Be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?" That post caused quite a stir in blogland (Teacher Magazine article, registration required) and won the Most Influential Blog Post award in the 2007 EduBlog awards. Fisch concluded by saying, "If a teacher today is not technologically literate—and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more—it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write."

If you are reading my blog online, chances are you already agree with Fisch, at least to some degree. We don't have to be on the cutting edge of technology—knowledgeable in the use of every brand-new gadget—but we do need to understand how to use technology as a teaching tool and to enhance the classroom experience. Many of your students likely learned how to play online games before they learned how to add. And older students do much of their research online, looking things up on websites like Wikipedia, the pros and cons with which we need to be familiar. To effectively guide students and help them make the most of their education, tech savvy is indeed a requirement.