“(Teaching) seems to require the sort of skills one would need to pilot a bus full of live chickens backwards, with no brakes, down a rocky road through the Andes while simultaneously providing colorful and informative commentary on the scenery.” – Franklin Habit.
If ever there was a profession that often went underappreciated, it is that of teaching. It takes so much time, effort and skill that unless one is fully invested in it, one does not know or understand the depth and breadth of it. There is a common misconception that because teachers get paid vacations thrice a year, that they ‘have it easy.’ But this cannot be further from the truth. Those who say this do not realize that teachers’ vacations aren’t about having fun. It is about an essential self-recharging, so as to not burn out or suffer a mental breakdown; such is the stress of teaching.
‘Not that difficult to do’
It’s not rocket science, you may say, even if a teacher is teaching Science. All they need to do is know their subject (which they do, because after all they did decide to teach it, didn’t they?) and deliver the content in an engaging manner. As a millennial, I had many teachers who did deliver the content in an engaging manner. And – gasp! – none of them used any kind of technology! They just stood in front of the class and… taught! I still remember those lessons by those particular teachers and often wonder how they did it. Indeed, I think teaching without technology is a dying art.
Around the world teachers struggle with the fact that technology has made it challenging for them to hold the undivided attention of students. The relationship previously fostered between caring teachers and their students is now being slowly eroded because the latter is being distracted by computers and mobile phones even in the classroom. Teachers are competing with new technology that made its presence felt during the Covid-19 pandemic such as Google Classrooms and Microsoft Teams. Students are not fazed by distractions in the classroom as they can always go home, message their teacher online and seek clarifications on whatever they missed. Never mind that the teacher spent a great deal of time preparing their lesson and then initiating a discussion around it in the classroom with the hope of expanding young minds and their views. Thus, the mutual give-and-take of information that is so integral to learning is now replaced by that ‘hide-behind-your-screen’ culture that, despite its ability to enable those who are self-conscious to speak up without fear, is also enabling students to sink deeper into anti-social behavior. Teachers are then also saddled with the task of guiding students to unlearn these behaviors that can be so detrimental to living a positive and fulfilling life.
In an article about school reform by Larry Cuban, Tim Parks- novelist, literary scholar and translator- shares his views about the modern classroom and how technology has adversely affected the relationship between teacher and student. He says, “With the erosion of that relationship [between professor and students] goes the environment that nurtured it: the segregated space of the classroom where, for an hour or so, all attention was focused on a single person who brought all of his or her experience to the service of the group.”
Sadly, Parks speaks as an experienced professor who left his job at the University of Modern Languages in Milan because he found himself taking second place to technology in his classroom. He complained that students who brought in their devices to the classroom under the guise of ‘taking notes’ were more often conversing online or browsing the internet.
Still, it is noteworthy that Parks is seen to only be part of the minority who walk away from their teaching jobs in the face of this tussle with technology. In his article, Cuban says that the majority of teachers seem to be adapting to the new classroom dynamic spearheaded by technology and are doing their best to incorporate different types of technology into their teaching methods.
In a post-pandemic world, many teachers also think that technology enhances students’ learning experiences and help teachers to deliver material effectively. One teacher was quoted as saying, “(students) use social networking sites to learn from one another and to express their beliefs – even children who are quiet in the classroom find it easier to express themselves online”. Perhaps a great deal of student perceptions of teachers and their skills is also to do with the fact that they do not want to encounter luddites in their learning process. Instead, they want to be seen from the same intellectual perspective that they see themselves.
Meanwhile, Catherine Steiner-Adair, a clinical psychologist and school consultant sees things from a different angle. She says that teachers adapting technology in the classroom contributes to screen addiction and threatens developing minds. She says she is “continually asked by parents, teachers, and administrators about ways to get a grip on technology” and that it is “out of control.” She reports that teachers have raised warnings about students losing their critical skills of learning, creativity, sustained attention and such, because they are so immersed in technology both in and outside the classroom.
Connecting through relationships
It is a tough decision that teachers have to make about allowing and using technology in the classroom.
But ask any student which teachers they remember fondly from their school days. It is those who established a connection, teachers they had face-to-face honest conversations with, and those who genuinely cared. It goes to show that teachers, good teachers, do not need technology to make themselves heard. But when teachers are forced to adopt it in their classrooms, then they are cornered and pressured just so that education can ‘keep up with the times.’
So, what is the answer to the million-dollar question- ‘is teaching a dying art due to technology?’ Well, the jury is still out on that one. Teachers themselves seem divided on the effects of technology in the classroom. However, one thing is certain. Teaching without technology does work; but technology without proper teaching does not.
(Anouk De Silva)