Do we need to be experts?

At yesterday's curriculum development day, I shared my changing paradigm related to the importance of expertise in technology. In the sciences, experts are highly regarded with an authority that is earned through study and experience. As an educator, I will never have this type of expertise in technology because it plays a secondary role to my focus on education. Furthermore, is it necessary to set this level of understanding as my goal? Do educators need to be experts in technology?

I challenge us to re frame our thinking away from the idea of gaining expertise toward the goal of developing skills and strategies for using technology to improve our practice. This opens up many more possibilities for us. It accounts for why the least experienced person can contribute to the discussion and empowers each of us to help a colleague. It opens new doors for learning and reaching our students. I might not be an expert, but I have enough understanding to know that technology can improve our instruction. Isn't that what is more important?

Google Goodies

I just learned about a lot of exciting tools in Google. It will take some time for me to fool around with all of them, but do you know about....
Google Earth?
Google Calendar?
Google Advanced Search?
Google Custom Search?
Using * for a "fill in the blank" function?
Google Calculator?
Sketch Up?
1-800-GOOG-411?

Let me know what you think.