Teachers Can Become Extinct as Dinosaurs

Will the teachers become obsolete? This question was never more relevant than today.

Technology is redefining educational space in a major way. It has changed the teaching learning environment in some fundamental ways. Technology, for example, has decentralized the knowledge in the sense that it does not emanate from the twin sources - textbook or teachers, anymore. Rather, knowledge is accessible to anyone and everyone who has the technology. This has implications on the process of knowledge transfer.

The internet revolution has brought the world of knowledge on everyone’s finger tips. If one wants to know something they don’t go searching a teacher or a knowledgeable people. Google knows it all, everyone believes. The delivery mediums and platforms including computers, laptops, tabs brought about many more interesting ways of learning. A teacher may tell one way, here they have a variety of them in the form of multimedia audio visual, animation, simulations and others.

Learning was never as engaging and teacher is no longer indispensable. The coming of mobile and particularly the Artificial Intelligence (AI) makes it possible to do a number of routine educational chores much more efficiently than a teacher can ever do. In fact, some of the learning algorithms that AI has come up with is humanly impossible to replicate. The deep learning allows us to discern learning patterns in students and offer adaptive learning solutions in a personalised manner.

The AI powered Geneo, the latest offering from ILFS Education, promises to bring about such a cutting-edge learning experience to the classroom that blurs the boundary of school and home. Students access textbooks on any platform, be it computer terminal, tablet or even phone. They can underline, annotate the textbook chapter. At the same time, they have options to access relevant resources to further their knowledge by watching a video, an ‘exploriment’, mindmaps etc. Even further queries can be posted to virtual mentors to get a reply sooner than one can access classroom teacher. In nut shell, technology seems to be poised to make teachers really toil hard to justify their existence. The logic of ed-tech seems to be heading to a teacher less classroom. Or, we are told to believe so. Let us try to dig a bit deeper. The crux of the argument is that technology is going to play a crucial role in education. Sure. A 21st century teacher has to adjust and refine his / her teaching skills to the emerging technology and use these tech tools such that students achieve learning outcomes more effectively. But to assume that the tool is going to replace the user needs to be examined in a context. Considering a generalised and universal application of so called cutting edge technology does not cut uniform ice in a world that presents a variegated reality. The technology needs to be considered against the socio-economic and cultural context of a society. Let me illustrate this with an example.

In a remote village of Arunchal Pradesh the IL&FS Education team was giving a demonstration of K-Class package which is a unique and comprehensive K to 12 solutions to make teaching learning engaging and meaningful. This village school did not have regular electricity supply and tech gadgets are mostly run on generators or inverters. Our team started a K-Class demo which comes bundled with K-Yan, a versatile knowledge vehicle presenting a combination of various educational resources and tools. It has K-Class solutions including videos for K to 12 classes; It can transform any smooth wall into an interactive space; it has an in built sound system; it works as a community computer and even local server and so on. So, our facilitators chose the available classroom wall to use it as projector and interactive screen. As the K-Yan came to life by a simple press of a button it turned the class wall into a curious place. Students from nearby areas got to know and came running, and sat on the window to see the wonder being created in front of them by the interactive videos. As the demo sessions ended and K-Yan was shut down, some students got up and went to the wall where the video was projected and started feeling it. This wall had opened a world of enriching lesson in video just a few seconds away. Where had that magic vanished?

Their mesmerized eyes seemed to be asking while their hands moved on the wall to get a faint touch of the characters who were live a few seconds back. The teacher took over from here and started demystifying the 'magic', into learning. Any talk of AI Or cutting edge technology for this village school and teachers is nothing more than a fairy tale. And, so long such schools will exist we will need a teacher who knows how to use an appropriate technology for creating an engaging activity in the classroom and ignite the tender minds to explore the world of knowledge. Yes, those teachers who would wish away technology and resist it, will face an extinction to join the ilk of dinosaurs.