I recently took part in a discussion in the International Society for Technology in Education group on Linkedin. It's a closed group, but if you are involved in education in any way you should consider joining. For members the the full discussion is here.
The topic, started by Farhana Iqbal was:
Technology will not eliminate teachers from classroom but it is mean of delivery and instruction. Teachers will remain knowledge dispenser using technology as teaching tool.
My response is summarized below:
We are already well past the time when we should look at teachers as "Knowledge Dispensers." Our job is to facilitate, to provide guidance and structure. To bring Chomsky into it - children are predisposed to learning. They will learn anyway -- often in spite of, not because of, their teachers, schools, and curriculum.
Don't misunderstand me. I'm not knocking the excellent work teachers do every day, I've had dealings with thousands, and bad teachers are few and far between. However, the systems they work in and the methods they are required to work with are largely flawed and out-moded. Many teachers innovate around these limits, but it shouldn't have to be so difficult.
Unfortunately almost all the Instructional Technology products available today are designed to work within these same traditional classroom-based systems; by themselves they will not lead to the kind of paradigm shift required to properly leverage technology for learning.
I think we need to look beyond the classroom and develop more practical, immersive and real-world-based approaches to education. Project-Based Learning and Inquiry-Based Learning (use whatever jargon you prefer) are steps in the right direction.
I think the topic we need to think more about is not how can technology be used for "delivery and instruction" but how can it best be used to aid exploration and discovery.
I'm quite sure there is no such thing as a Knowledge Dispenser, although I am reminded of the famous rhyme about Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol College, Oxford:
Here come I, my name is Jowett.
All there is to know I know it.
I am Master of this College,
What I don't know isn't knowledge!
Not withstanding the wags at 19th Century Oxford, and as much as I like the archaic notion of one Knowledge Dispenser knowing everything -- this isn't how learning and teaching works. A Knowledge Dispenser doesn't learn everything and then transfer it to a student, no matter how much knowledge he or she has. You can replace Knowledge Dispenser with 'Computer' or 'Network' in that last sentence. It's still true.
Knowledge is constructed by the learner. It cannot be dispensed.
Let's discuss the best ways to use technology to help students make meaning.
