No Tech Interventions

So I sat this morning through four hours of training on the intervention program that was piloted in a few of our middle schools this year and will be at all of our middle schools next year. I started the session with all other instructional support personnel beginning a KWL chart for this program. The presenter, who is a representative of the intervention program company, comes to our table and starts talking to us. Everyone else at the table had met with the rep before so she immediately asks at which school that I teach. I of course say something along the lines of I don't have a school, that I am an instructional technology specialist for the secondary level. That woman ran away from me so fast I could almost see the smoke coming off of her shoes!
Before she really got into the presentation she moved us all away from power outlets and told us there would be no need for computers, that paper would be provided if we wanted to take notes. So we all "powered down" for the next 3 1/2 hours (you read right). I sat and listened to the presentation and followed as best I could, although I kept thinking about how I was either going to lose the piece of paper on which I was taking notes or that I wouldn't be able to read my handwriting later.
The program itself is not bad. Students take an assessment at the beginning of the year. This particular program places them in an "on or above" grade level class, 1 - 2 years below grade level, and then 3 - 4 years below. All classes follow a five-part lesson structure, which is all well and good, and "tiers 1 and 2" pretty much follow the same curriculum - "tier 2" having more support structures in place. The "tier 3" students follow the same scope and sequence as the district, but has a very regimented class structure within which the teacher has no real freedom.
The presenter then walks us through a typical lesson within the structure. Not a mention of any technology. Not only is there no mention of technology, but when the question was asked if they could receive the materials electronically so teachers could use them with SMART boards, clickers, or other such equipment, they were shot down. There is apparently no need to "distract the students" with such items when they can't even read or do math. (I'm not making this stuff up here.)
I never really recovered after that point, although it did shed some more light on the "no computers during training" from earlier.
So now I'm left to think "Are our kids really going to have to power down across the district in the coming years?" and "Aren't we taking a huge step backward?" I know that there are many teachers out there don't implement technology simply out of fear-be it fear of the technology not working or the fear of not being an "expert of all things" in their own classrooms. But are we really benefiting children and learning if we continue to validate those fears? Why is it acceptable to push students out of their comfort zones in school but not teachers? One would think that in order to promote life-long learning in children, one would need to be a willing life-long learner - wouldn't they?

Image courtesy of rotkappchen143 and Flickr.