The Role of Teachers In A Digital Age

Integrating technology into classrooms is a great way for our students to learn on their own and comfortable pace. Yet, many views this as making learners work harder while teachers are not doing much in their lesson. This is an incorrect perspective of the teachers’ role in the classroom in the era of the 21st century of digital learning. I will explain my point of view concerning three questions to address the role of teachers in a technological time.

1.     What are the emerging trends in educational technology?

There are many trends emerging in educational technology and many schools are applying it into their classroom. There has been learning through social media, gamification, collecting online data (feedback) and immersing learning through AR and VR.

2.     How do they reshape the culture of learning and teaching?

This reshapes how we, teachers, can enhance our ways of teaching beyond the traditional learning/teaching and to have our students engaged in a practical way by keeping pace with technology to teach them to be decision-makers, and maybe also learn from our learners’ digital usages. For example, students that are in medical care for some type of chronical illness, they can use technology to learn and enrich their knowledge with their virtual classmates.

3.     What is the role of teachers in an era of digital learning?

Through my research and readings, I believe the teacher’s role is as a guide and perhaps it might change throughout time (it is changing as technology changes). The teacher is also an organizer/planner that lays out the objectives of the lesson/course and the learners are guided with help when it is needed to reach the end goal of the lesson/course. This does not mean the teacher has less responsibilities, but this means they are thinking in-depth and far ahead to create tasks that require critical thinking and application of skills for the learners.