Remember those days when you’d sit around with your friends and debating for hours the validity of some simple topic? It could be something as simple as “how did Romeo and Juliette end? Did they both die? Did somebody end up saving them in the end?”
With no internet at your fingertips, the debate can go on for hours with no one really being able to fact check the other. But, with the rise of the digital age, the days of baseless debates are now history. Nowadays, it just takes a few seconds to access any information in the world, get more information now.
The digital age has proven a drastic change in habits, especially for teachers. Back in the day, we took what our teachers said at face value. We took notes and went to the local library and to use their encyclopedia when needed. But today’s chidden are digital natives. They speak the social media lingo, text faster than they can write, and grew up with the habit of “let me quickly check that on my phone” be it places to go, facts about their favorite celebrities, and just about anything else they need on a day-to-day basis.
In the ongoing battle of the teacher vs. the internet, who’s going to come out on top in a digital world? Non-profit organizations like Khan Academy has been changing the world by providing free education to all. According to student Anjali, “I come from a poor family. At home, it’s one room, just a room we live in. When I was a child, I used to fear mathematics. But now, I am in love with mathematics because of Khan Academy.” While providing free education to the less fortunate in rural areas is life-changing, what’s to stop schools around the world, regardless of socioeconomic background, to switch to online learning instead of physically attending schools?
During a 2013 TED talk educational researcher Sugata Mitra made a bold statement on self-education, stating that “Schools, as we know them, are obsolete.” His statement, based on an experiment where he left a computer behind in a remote slum in India and came back to find that the children had learned to use it and taught themselves English in the process.
But ultimately, teachers can’t be replaced by the internet no matter how advanced a program is. The face-to-face human interaction can’t be replaced by an interactive education program or a video. The role of the teacher has evolved in recent years. In general, they’ve gone from a lecturer whose aim is to drill information into their students to a guide with the aim of nurturing young independent thinkers.
According to a few of Beijing’s international school teachers, “Teachers are no longer the sole source of information that students can rely on. In the present age, teachers have to be sure that the concepts they teach their students are factual. The Internet age has brought information so close that any misconceptions are quickly detected by students through research. It has made teachers be vulnerable and accept that they are not the sole source of knowledge.”
Sources: https://www.quantumrun.com/article/internet-vs-teachers-who-would-win, https://www.khanacademy.org/
Photos: unsplash
