Technology in general, but especially the technology we use to create a blended classroom, has a number of obvious advantages. It also has a number of challenges, two of which I will address here - time, and difficulty.
Time is a quantity that there never seems enough of in a classroom. As much as people (myself included) tout technology as a "time saver" it is really only that with a lot of advance planning and student preparation. To use technology effectively I need it to be directly related to the task at hand and provide a specific curricular outcome that will further my lesson. It's not good enough to say "use technology to solve this problem" - at least not in the early stages of a class. Because of this I have found myself having to do a lot of preparation work ahead of time with my students - getting them signed up for various accounts, demonstrating how to utilize various tools, creating lessons which directly utilize the technology they have, etc. All this to do what many teachers have already been doing for hundreds of years - perform formative assessment, communicate with students, share information, provide an engaging lesson, etc.
Is technology able to do this "better" - absolutely. My calendars and course information is available for students regardless of where they are. My formative assessment is instantly logged and available at a later date. My lessons are equally, if not more, engaging than they could be without technology.
What I struggle with is the amount of time invested in preparing students and lessons to utilize the technology. Is it worth it? Are we seeing major advances in classroom learning? At the moment I would answer that it depends on what I'm doing, and it depends on how much time it takes. I love the clicker systems because they tend to be pretty fast to access and provide me with a lot of information. The various "centralized" locations are nice as it provides students and parents an easy way of accessing course material. Other uses of technology I would have to examine on a case-by-case basis to ensure that the invested time is worthwhile in the classroom.
The other challenge that can arise with technology is the difficulty of the assignments being presented. It is very simple to "forget" or "lose" the curricular outcomes when it comes to technology projects. The amazing powerpoint on the life of Ghandi may be more an amazing powerpoint as really getting into the historical details and relevant events of his life. The video on explaining a mathematical concept may be pretty weak in mathematics but certainly a neat assignment!
Because of this I have to always ask myself, and my colleagues, about the specific curricular outcomes they would require if this was a different summative assessment and ensure that these outcomes are equally met within the project. Students have access to the entire world when creating a "technology" project, we have to ensure that we ask the right question.
I see great value in blending the learning in and out of the classroom with technology and wont be stopping anytime soon, but I also see great value in ensuring that the correct planning goes into actually utilizing these excellent tools.