Giving Compass' Take:

• The author discusses the importance of empowerment for both students and teachers and how we must value them as they navigate the advances in education technology. 

• Why is supporting teachers important? How does edtech and other nuanced learning styles affect teachers' job performance? 

• Learn about how to fight against the existing dichotomy between teachers and technology and how we must move towards embracing integration.

What is the best use of teacher and student time during class? The age-old debate sets up competing values. On one side, there is an argument that teachers should command student attention as they convey their knowledge.  The opposing view promotes students trying to figure out how to solve problems while teachers assume the role of responsive and supportive coach.

With a growing library and toolset of learning resources via the Internet, I am seeing a trend toward teachers shifting more and more responsibility of managing learning to their students.

My book Who Owns the Learning discusses giving students jobs such as tutorial designers, documenting and sharing their learning, and researching curriculum. Easy to use tutorial design tools such as screencasting, has enabled teachers to create video tutorials and make them available on their home page.

As web-based tutorials continue to grow, a teacher’s role will shift more toward diagnostic skills via resources that make student thinking more visible. An example is PRISM, a free web-based tool from the University of Virginia where teachers can immediately see how the whole class is interpreting the meaning of text.

As we continue to shift learning environments to be web supported, I am convinced the role of the teacher will be more important than ever:

  • Providing students with resources from around the world
  • Empowering them to publish for a global audience
  • Applying tools to make thinking more visible
  • Teaching critical thinking and sophisticated search skills
  • Creating challenges where students have to apply knowledge
  • Building learning communities of students helping students

Read the full article about empowering students and teachers by Alan November at Getting Smart