Earlier this week, I had the privilege of speaking before a group of concerned business and community leaders on the future of public education. Almost according to script, the topic of technology game up. After the requisite questions on online learning and such, the discussion quickly turned to the Khan Academy.

For those unaware, the Khan Academy is a “hot thing” in online learning. Started by Salman Khan, praised by Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation, recognized with new philanthropic funding to expand its reach, spotlighted by CNN and other top media outlets, Khan Academy is a shining example of what a man and a computer can do to further education pursuits. (Here is Salman Khan presenting at TED Talks in March of 2011; Bill Gates shows up in the last few minutes of Khan's talk.)

The concept is fairly simple.  Khan and a whiteboard offer an engaging, 10-minute lesson on a given topic. What started off as a math/science focus has now expanded to include civics, art history, and banking.  All told, Khan now offers more than 2,700 videos, with Spanish-language versions of many coming in the near future, and claims of nearly 87 million lessons delivered.

Without question, Khan provides a useful learning tool that benefits a wide range of students. One can see the value in using Khan to supplement the classroom experience in many settings, providing specific lessons on content that may be difficult to comprehend in the course of a regular class session. Or it may provide some additional time on task for students who don't learn well by reading textbooks.

We get into trouble, though, when we start looking to the Khan Academy approach (and many others like it) to supplant what is happening in our public schools. Some ask why we can’t just replace a struggling public school with an army of iPads, all tuned into Khan and other online learning resources. I even know of some instances where schools have punted on their obligations to teach ESOL students, suggesting instead that the mother buy a laptop and provide her child access to Khan Academy materials.

Therein lies the danger of an either-or approach, in education technology or any other endeavor.

Years ago, when we were talking about 21^st century skills, it became a great debate as to whether it was WHAT you taught or HOW you taught. Did you actually teach problem-solving skills, or was it how you approached a classroom lesson in math or science?  Did you teach working in a group, or was it how you approached a civics lesson? 

That question bedevils us still.  Does the technology itself do the teaching, with a long-term trend of transforming educators into facilitators, or do we better equip today’s educators to integrate and maximize the technologies available to them?  Do we hand over the tough lessons to the Khan Academies of the world, or do we figure out how to learn from Khan and utilize the computers, tablets, whiteboards, and cell phones we find in our classrooms and schools to improve both instruction and performance?

The answer isn’t one or the other. Khan Academy has tapped into something that we have long struggled with in our quest to improve academic performance – student engagement. It doesn’t matter if a kid is top-of-the-class and going to Harvard or a struggling learner at a drop-out factory. Platforms like Khan have figured out how to engage, involve, and encourage students of all sorts of backgrounds. Our challenge is how to transform that lesson into one that can be applied in every district, every school, and every classroom – whether they specifically use those 2,700 online lessons or not.

Patrick Riccards writes the blog Eduflack. The opinions expressed here are his own.