"Teaching with technology"

All classes are now online, obviously. Many people are talking about the allegedly unprecedented nature of such large-scale "teaching with technology." I agree that the scale of this particular pedagogical moment is unprecedented, but I disagree that "teaching with technology" is a good descriptor for it. I have been teaching with technology since the start of the semester, it's just that the technology was simulation software for doing sophisticated calculations, not web conferencing.  And I was teaching with technology in many semesters prior to this one, since I've been using Zemax, Python, and other professional computational tools in many (not all) of my classes for some time now.

In my first week of college, I was hired into a research lab, where a professor promptly commenced teaching me with technology.  That technology included CAD software, vacuum equipment, oscilloscopes, various acids, magnetic shielding materials, simulation software, and numerous other things.  In graduate school I took a class that was heavy on "teaching with technology."  That technology included a cleanroom, spin-coater, photolithography, various etches, furnaces, vacuum chamber for deposition of metals, etc. My PhD advisor taught us with technology, including lasers, computers, fume hoods, glassware for chemistry, spectrometers, microscopes, etc.

I wish they would say "teaching with communication technology", because the implication of "teaching with technology" is that those of us who don't normally make extensive use of information technology in our classes aren't making use of technology. Check out my Zemax assignments and then we'll talk about whether I've been teaching with technology.