Traditional vs. Digital Teaching?

Andrew Churches asks:

• "How do you appraise a persons teaching when they are using techniques, process and methods that are completely new to the appraiser?
  
• How can you judge the effective delivery of core competencies when you do not understand the approach or method the teacher is undertaking or using?

The problem with being on the leading edge of innovations is that often this is the bleeding edge and I suspect that my colleagues have just found this out.

With the vast array of tools and technologies available to us, we can, if we are so inclined, match many traditional approaches to digital ones (see traditional approaches and digital alternatives). I can see the value in

• students writing blogs as process journals,
• in digitally telling stories rather than writing on paper;
• of drafting essays and stories on computers rather than rewriting it each time;
• in presenting reports as movies, voice threads, photostories;
• I can see why using mindmapping tools is a suitable alternative to butcher paper
• and why an empty exercise book is not a reflection of lack of classroom work."

But, he hints, does everyone else? How do you navigate the tension/ambiguity between traditional and digital approaches to education?