"Because if not used well [you know, tech for tech's sake] they can turn out to be more a distraction than a helping tool."
I agree with this point. I had a high school physics class with technology based laboratories. The labs turned out to be a whole lot of playing around with the video capture software, motion sensors, etc. and not a whole lot of physics. For my calculus labs, we were given lists of Maple commands to type up. For the "problem set" we were to retype those commands with different sets of numbers. In both cases the labs became about the technology and not the physics/calculus concepts behind what we were doing.
In my experience, the hardest thing about using technology in the classroom is trying to convey the message, not just the medium.
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I agree with this point. I had a high school physics class with technology based laboratories. The labs turned out to be a whole lot of playing around with the video capture software, motion sensors, etc. and not a whole lot of physics. For my calculus labs, we were given lists of Maple commands to type up. For the "problem set" we were to retype those commands with different sets of numbers. In both cases the labs became about the technology and not the physics/calculus concepts behind what we were doing.
In my experience, the hardest thing about using technology in the classroom is trying to convey the message, not just the medium.