Unplugged Schools?

In Orion Magazine, Lowell Monke wonders if schools aren't leaning too heavily on "plugging in" to the digital age, grooming tech-savvy students who rely  more on machines than on themselves.

He has a worthy point: an education largely spent sitting still and looking at a screen is limited; it denies the importance of physicality and direct interaction with people and nature. But I think Monke might swerve too far in the de-digitized direction: the interaction available online is tremendous, and the pariticpatory culture the internet has generated, manifesting in individual blogs, podcasts, video-making, citizen journalism, online conversations with people around the globe--this is not to be sniffed at. I go so far as to believe that it is reshaping our society into something more democratic and grassroots. Of course our education systems should welcome this.