Technology to empower teachers, not replace them.

I was approached by a community newspaper to write about education, at a very short notice and the first thought that came to my mind was - "Are we teachers any longer relevant to education?" Then on news saw the item about a distance learning institute going fully digitized and the concern of its teachers. Somehow, this all connected to my learning and reading in the recent weeks about the changes forthcoming in the not so distant future. The other day, I was discussing with colleagues, how I am attracted to "Flipped classroom" and its potential in making individualized learning possible with the help of technology.  Not surprisingly, the reaction varied between "just another fad" to "its the beginning of the end of teachers in classroom".

However, isn't that already a fait accompli? The Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been around for what seems like ages, though in fact, they started just over a decade ago, in 2006 and have become more popular in the last five years Click here for article in the Economist. Will they replace Universities - I doubt - but they have already changed the way Universities work - just as Uber and Air BnB have changed the world of transport and hospitality. When we as teachers are expected to prepare learners for jobs after their education, that do not exist now; is it too far-fetched to expect that we will be having schools and universities in the future that operate in ways that seem unimaginable today?

So, we as teachers will have to use the tools provided by ever-evolving technology to empower our teaching. Technology is currently helping in designing activities that assist in pre-learning of topics,  assessment of prior knowledge and also of knowledge gained. Technology also helps in self paced learning and also in designing individual learning for distance education model. We have a world which is quickly moving to an increased role of technology in all walks of life. Robot-teachers have been tried and the research has found (Sharkey 2016) that though children initially get enamoured to the new friend, who seems to understand their emotions and interacts with them, but the lack of accountability, the missing human touch and the inability to have a real connection is what makes the teacher's presence is still important.

On reflecting on what I have recently learnt and read about the use of AI and technology in education, it seems to me that these are important developments in today's world where the children are growing up with a screen around them from very young age, which could be for entertainment, communication and even education. We as educators need to harness all this engaging media around them and try and use it for furthering the cause of imparting the skills for future to our learners.