Teacher Relevance in Online Classrooms
The following reflection is from a Blog post i did in response to a Quest in OLTD 509. I think that it shows a bit more insight into how I see the value of living, breathing teachers in their role either face-to-face, or virtually.
HAL 9000 – Do We Really Need a Teacher in the Room?
If any of you can remember the future, you should recall HAL 9000. This artificial intelligence was the main protagonist of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was supposed to be the ultimate teacher / guide for crewman Dave Bowman aboard the Discovery One spacecraft. HAL was always level headed, never upset, and always spoke in very calm and conversational ways. Wow, would HAL make the best teacher, or what?
After reading the two articles for this Creative Destruction Quest, there is a gnawing debate on whether technology will ever replace teachers in the classroom. I use gnawing because the debate has been around since the introduction of computers into school classrooms and is still chewing away. When Clarke published 2001 in 1968, computers in schools was science fiction and teachers had no concerns about technology replacing them. Yet, in the Minnesota Star Tribune article on substitute teachers being replaced by open learning using iPads and laptops, this is exactly what is being experimented with. In the article by Don Wettrick on Creative Destruction, he argues that teachers will not be replaced by technology, but need to adapt to the innovations technology can provide to enhance student learning. In both cases, students are being presented as being capable of directing their own learning and are able to use technology to facilitate how they master assigned learnings. In both situations, there seems to be a need to allow students to incorporate technology into their learning so that they can become independent of traditional educational structures, often referred to Factory Model learning. Ok, so technology is cool and engaging and it makes sense that we incorporate it into our learning environments. Especially considering the proliferation of personal technologies that surround all of us. How can we not use these devices in our classrooms? Yet what is driving this debate? Is it really a search for alternate, improved, and student driven pedagogies? Or, is it perhaps an agenda of efficiency and cost saving? How far away are we from having a HAL 9000 placed in charge of, not one classroom, but due to its processing capabilities, in charge of the entire school? Scary? No, ridiculous! Regardless of how efficient the technology becomes, nothing will replace the ability of a teacher to make positive human contact with their students. No technology can replace the need for a student to have a confidant when they need a shoulder to cry on, celebrate a personal victory, or share a funny story. That is what teachers are for. The best part – both the student and teacher can use technology to make the experience just a bit richer. At the end of the day, even the penny-pinching school boards in Minnesota will have to agree with Wettrick that teachers are relevant in today’s classrooms and tomorrow’s.
If any of you can remember the future, you should recall HAL 9000. This artificial intelligence was the main protagonist of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was supposed to be the ultimate teacher / guide for crewman Dave Bowman aboard the Discovery One spacecraft. HAL was always level headed, never upset, and always spoke in very calm and conversational ways. Wow, would HAL make the best teacher, or what?
After reading the two articles for this Creative Destruction Quest, there is a gnawing debate on whether technology will ever replace teachers in the classroom. I use gnawing because the debate has been around since the introduction of computers into school classrooms and is still chewing away. When Clarke published 2001 in 1968, computers in schools was science fiction and teachers had no concerns about technology replacing them. Yet, in the Minnesota Star Tribune article on substitute teachers being replaced by open learning using iPads and laptops, this is exactly what is being experimented with. In the article by Don Wettrick on Creative Destruction, he argues that teachers will not be replaced by technology, but need to adapt to the innovations technology can provide to enhance student learning. In both cases, students are being presented as being capable of directing their own learning and are able to use technology to facilitate how they master assigned learnings. In both situations, there seems to be a need to allow students to incorporate technology into their learning so that they can become independent of traditional educational structures, often referred to Factory Model learning. Ok, so technology is cool and engaging and it makes sense that we incorporate it into our learning environments. Especially considering the proliferation of personal technologies that surround all of us. How can we not use these devices in our classrooms? Yet what is driving this debate? Is it really a search for alternate, improved, and student driven pedagogies? Or, is it perhaps an agenda of efficiency and cost saving? How far away are we from having a HAL 9000 placed in charge of, not one classroom, but due to its processing capabilities, in charge of the entire school? Scary? No, ridiculous! Regardless of how efficient the technology becomes, nothing will replace the ability of a teacher to make positive human contact with their students. No technology can replace the need for a student to have a confidant when they need a shoulder to cry on, celebrate a personal victory, or share a funny story. That is what teachers are for. The best part – both the student and teacher can use technology to make the experience just a bit richer. At the end of the day, even the penny-pinching school boards in Minnesota will have to agree with Wettrick that teachers are relevant in today’s classrooms and tomorrow’s.