Changing the Face, Facing the Change: Technology Integration and the Teacher

Read part one and part two.

Part Three

As we look into the schools of the future what will we see? It is quite possible that the classrooms of tomorrow will not even be located in a traditional school building. The advances in technology that make distance learning a reality are rapidly removing the last of the barriers to education.

The history of distance learning can be traced back to correspondence courses in Europe and the United States in the mid-1800s. By the late 1950s, television offered a new delivery system. The question of whether these educational broadcasts would replace classroom instruction was easily answered when content suppliers discovered that two-way communication was of major importance. Also, the experts asked to deliver the television instruction did not have the most vivacious personalities and they often failed to captivate viewers.

The biggest breakthrough in distance learning came when computer-aided instruction found its way into the classroom. By 1979, 15 million personal computers were estimated to be in world-wide use. The necessity of the classroom teacher was once again addressed, but it became readily apparent that the interaction between students and the computer system could not replace the human interaction of the teacher/student relationship.

Today, distance education systems can achieve a high level of communication between teacher and student, so a new definition of what a classroom looks like is evolving. Through streaming video feeds and text messaging, teachers can reach students in rural and isolated communities separated by perhaps hundreds, or thousands, of miles. In some classes, the students and teachers meet together at a designated time online; other classes are designed to give students access to the information whenever it best suits the student’s schedule.

Currently, there are over 2 million students taking online courses and it is expected that in the near future most students will spend part of their school day in a virtual classroom experience, placed in groups according to their interests and skills. One distance learning school accepts applicants from kindergarten through high school. There are a variety of ways for the students to get to know each other. For example, an online school newsletter with articles submitted by pupils, or individual web pages submitted to a student gallery. Schools can also boost school spirit by selling clothing and personal items emblazoned with the school insignia from its website. To give the students a sense of the "traditional" high school education, some schools even hold a senior prom and graduation ceremony for their distance learners. These events are held in hotel conference rooms near the administrative offices of the learning organization.

As the physical walls of the classroom disappear, the roles of teachers and students will again change. Students will have more invested in their learning process; they will have a greater sense of ownership in their education. Not only will teachers need to show that they are highly qualified both in a core subject and in acknowledged learning styles, but they will also need to learn more about instructional design and a variety of new ways to present instructional materials. Because of the loss of body language and other visual cues, teachers will need to develop new ways to assess their success in delivering instruction. While the time interacting with students may lessen, the preparation time will increase exponentially.

In addition to new instructional venues, there will also be a new wealth of resources. Virtual classes can pull experts from all over the world into their classroom. Students living in different areas, with different cultures and lifestyles can gather together and interact with each other through video-conferencing equipment that can now be found on even household computers. However, there is one element that will remain consistent in the ever changing educational world. That is the human element, the interaction of the teacher and the student.

How does LearnKey fit into this new educational model? To find out click here.

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