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Interesting conversation today.  Thanks Howard, Alice, all.  Some phrases that stick in my mind to mull further: "technology is whatever we aren't yet comfortable using", "blogging is for old people", "can play in sandbox", technology can facilitate interactivity but can also get in the way of it, technology is of value largely in terms of the possibilities it opens that one might not otherwise have thought of, technology needs to be assessed differently in the local context than in the distance learning context. 

Some perhaps useful historical perspective from Serendip:

• Literary kinds: thinking through genre, from blogs to ..., 2010
• To blog ... or not to blog, 2007
• A panel discussion about using the web for educational purposes, 2005
• Intellectual exchange as a medium for community building on the web and beyond, 2005
• Serendip's 10th anniversary: an invitation to an intellectual playground, 2005
• The "how" of story sharing II, 2004
• Education and technology: Serendip's experiences 1994-2004
• Serendip's evolving web principles, 2001
• Brains, computers, and education - a five year progress report, 2000
• Inquiry, interaction, and technology (joint progarm, BMC/HC/Swarthmore,UPenn), 2000
• Brains, computers, and education, ~1995