It is not something new to spot that rapid advancement of technology changes everything around and penetrates deeper to change our needs, our way of thinking, understanding, analyzing and judgment. It is a revolution which we don’t have control on, and it drives our lives with or without our consent.
Job skills and requirements are deviating away from what we used to consider. The whole learning and teaching process is changing. The transmitter-receiver topology or the master-slave relation between the teacher/educator and the student/learner is diminishing and won’t be there anymore.
The skills can be acquired via various ways that may not even require a teacher’s help. The resources and the information are there, open and available for everyone. All you need is the ability to see, hear, talk, and a communication device that gets you connected.
Our children live among devices of artificial intelligence that can handle their commands and convert them into meals at the door step or music at the finger tip. Our kids can assimilate the ambient technological environment rapidly. My seven and a half years daughter asked me to purchase a note book. After six months, she realized that portability and mobility is important, so she requested an iPhone and now she is seeking an iPod. Well, her mom made a big mistake when she asked her what she needs the I-PAD for. The 7.5 years exploded of laughter as she thought her mom is unaware of the difference between the iPod and the I PAD.
This is the generation which we need to guide successfully through the journey of learning and knowledge acquisition. I believe the challenge is how fast we can act to develop our educational institutes into virtual institutes without concrete barriers and school buses. This implies a lot of changes and remapping of our measures. Attendance must be remapped to commitment; evaluation must be based on accomplishment; the selection of topics must not be molded in a semester frame, and even the time frame –as a whole- must be waived.
Hi Sam
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I immediately recognised the conversation between your daughter and your wife, I have witnessed the very same thing happen in my house between my daughter and my wife and the conversation was about how to use an IPhone! I agree that the relationship between teachers and students is going to have to be renegotiated, education as transmission has had its day.