Dwayne, to be blunt, I think that this cherished "wired technology" may take a team or rocket scientists to create, but it requires the skill level of an average ape to operate. That is to, the skill level required to operate most the sophisticated electronic devices is very basic, and limited mainly to pictorial stimulus - motor response with very little cognitive processing. The skills they develop do not go beyond that assembly line worker - pushing a few buttons. What makes this process far more interesting that working on an assembly line or burger flipping is that the pictorial stimuli to elicit the response, which are emotionally engaging 9as opposed to assembly line).
In short what this 'wired world' is creating is handful of technological wizards capable of creating more and more fantastic machines, and an army of downright morons operating them. If the purpose of the educational institutions is to teach kids how to operate that machinery - there is no need for such institutions at all. The electronic game industry can do the dumbing down much more effectively, and with willing participation of the dumbees themselves.
The 'modern technology" will not teach cognitive skills, critical thinking or creativity, period. It may be very useful for those who already have such skills, but it will not develop them, even though it may help dumbing them down. It is so, because skill development and technological gadgetry rely on processes that directly oppose and contradict one another - the former one is necessarily labor-intensive; the latter - labor eliminating. You cannot acquire a skill without labor required to intelligently interact with the object of that labor.
If educational institutions are to succeed in their mission of developing higher cognitive skills, the need to undo the effect of the entertainment industry and its gadget on human mind, not to incorporate them into the curriculum.
Wojtek