Age of technology: Will Teachers be reduced to Facilitators . Luis

While the article is merely a prediction it is still a scary situation to ponder. What’s more intriguing is that more articles similar to the one read are appearing. This information tells me a few things such as educators all over the states are either already teaching using technology and agreeing or disagreeing with it as a tool. I can only perceive the future as an educator to be a nightmare similar to George Orwell’s 1984 if technology extinguishes teachers as dictators. If we are limited to an orthodox way the whole role as an educator becomes nothing more than an interpreter a google translator.  Technology has existed for quite some time so why hasn’t the revolution begun already ? The author comments that “all computing devices—from laptops to tablets to smartphones—are dismantling knowledge silos and are therefore transforming the role of a teacher into something that is more of a facilitator and coach.   I believe technology regardless how sophisticated can not replicate a teachers ability to make meaningful connections, pedagogy, answer questions about experiences, emotional support, deliver an activity with motivation the list can be continued.  Technology will never replace a teacher , but it can certainly reduce the profession.

As a science specialist my job is to plan activities for students in elementary schools. My first day I was given resources such as DVDs, booklets and the state manufactured curriculum including planning, exploring , summarize, of topics the whole works. My duties became facile using their format. I used one text for fifth graders and felt like it was not my class anymore so i scrapped it. What’s interesting is that the teachers in the school use the same thing no one really plans a lesson anymore. They use smart boards to play videos and games to teach students about trees and etc. Technology has already changed the field the only question is whether you’re in the boat as education sails towards a new horizon.

The best possible way for me to be prepared for the many directions education may go is to educate myself. I will never be able to have as much knowledge as the inter web ,but i can manipulate classroom instruction and teach my students the best way i see fit for which ever era presents itself.

Students have always taken charge of their own learning in the video Sugata Mitra places a computer in a remote destination and finds that children will at great lengths push themselves to learn ,but they need encourage. Students with encouragement can take charge of their own education i believe. In the video students are giving a presentation on molecular biology and the first thought was it is far easy to recite words than to express them with your own. No evidence suggests they were or weren’t the students own interpretation , but we have all done this copy and paste scenario. Are students really learning or are they memorizing.