Anything New?

Three years later, and what's new in education with technology? Nothing. Or everything. In the one hand, I have a fist full of change rattling around creating a bunch of noise. And that is exactly what the other hand notices, a lot of noise, just like three years ago. So, nothing changed while everything has changed.
Our platforms have changed from Nings and Wikis and websites to Schoology. Gradebooks are now portals. Students and parents are ever concerned about what they can access, but is too much access happening? Are too many resources and platforms confusing?  Just like three years ago, there is confusion with technology for all that content and communication opportunity that it brings. Good with the bad, that has not changed.
Nothing new there.
Still, there is a significant change with technology: the effect on society and how that then determines how the community drives the school system. As technology has evolved, we socially have changed. Numerous articles expose human weaknesses supported by technology including bullying, falsely presenting one's self, dependency and addiction, and a loss of social aptitude in immediate face:face interactions. Others support our exponential growth in achievement and communication development. As always, there are the extremes, the norm, and the truth somewhere in the middle.
To be certain, society has changed dramatically, as have expectations on school systems' communication and opportunities. More, devices have driven education as a tool, at least in part, as any tool would and has. These two pieces together drive the school now, making individual independence a bit more questionable.
As teachers, we still fight for attention, just that we now fight the parents texting their student on the cell phone. As teachers, we still incorporate the newest and greatest, just that we now have to keep up with more, more, more. As teachers, we still put the student as a human individual above the "data" that drives much of educational sciences, just that no we have more data to see past to get to the individual.
So, what's new? Nothing. Everything. People...society...politics...same old, same old.