Technology as a silver bullet

Ian Quillen, in Education Week, writes:

President Barack Obama’s goal of once again leading the world in percentage of college graduates by 2020 is impossible without increased implementation of technology in education, said U.S. Deputy Director Steve Midgley today at the Virtual School Symposium in Indianapolis. “The only way to hit that goal is to bring people back to the system and provide credentials,” Midgley said. “The only way we’re going to do that is with technology.”

Daniel Luzer counters:

Really? What’s the proof for this assertion? President Obama’s goal of the United States leading the world in college graduates stems from the realization that many other developed countries have more (or a higher percentage of) college graduates. But do they have more college graduates because of “increased implementation of technology in education”? No, they don’t. Technological innovations are not the key distinction between the United States and countries with a higher percentage of college graduates. It just isn’t.

We've talked about this at high school level before, though not in great detail. In spite of my love for technology, I fail to under how its use in education could possibly result in better schooling. All the evidence appears to suggest that despite the money poured into providing high-tech resources for students in the past decade or so, the quality of education hasn't really changed at all.