Technology - a replacement for hands on learning activities?

thanks to this Flickr'r

   

     When I recently read a text I was strongly reminded of my time in primary school. Back then, we used to engage in hands on activities, building with blocks, cutting up fruit, painting, drawing pretending and playing a vast variety of classroom games. The only time we ever used a computer was when our teacher was off sick and the principal took over. Wewere then able to play Packman. Of course, times have changed and if students now talk about their computer experiences, I'm sure they would go far beyond my first experiences.
       I was also always one of the people that believes that children are missing out on a lot of hands-on experiences as they sit in front of their Nintendo or Wii and engage in make believe situations. What happened to just going outside and kicking a ball or engaging in pretend play with your friends?
       Resnick now argues that children can engage in creative activities through new technology... But can they really? Of course, it is a great opportunity to be abe to use all the newest technology to create your own machines and robots, but isn't that only one way of creatively expresing yourself? Is that not restricting the children to only one medium? And who will pay for all these "wonderful"  creations? Aren't there other, much more important things that need to be focussed on?
Don't get me wrong, I believe that technology is an exciting and important addition to our education and children should become familiar with them as early as possible, but should they really replace the good old paintbrush, blocks and dress-up clothes? I think not. Addition Yes! Replacement No!
So here we go, a great challenge for teachers to be able to integrate all the new and old ways of learning to provide your students with the most effective leaning environment!