Thinking Outside the Desk: The Human Factor and an Evolving Role as Educator
I want to speak briefly about a topic that I find compelling, the evolving job of educators. I hope this sparks a conversation with your peers, children, students, and community about education and educators.
The empathy every educator shows for their students is a large part of why educators will always be necessary. A strong bond between the educator and learner helps facilitate growth in subject areas and the character of both individuals. I know I am not personally the same person I was when I started teaching because of my students, and I know my students have grown because of my social and educational interaction with them. This all boils down to the human factor as a key element in learning and will always be something that can’t truly be replicated. The human skills are what will be valued even more as technology advances.
Faculty and staff around the business of education are looking at their jobs right now and wondering what’s next? Jobs change and evolve over time and many of us forget that where we are today in the job market is not the same as it was even ten or twenty years ago. That is generally a good thing for society. It helps us move forward and grow our understanding of what we are capable of.
We are at a crossroads in learning, and it is not something that any educator should be worried about regarding job security. I have heard a lot of teachers across the country voice concerns about moving to online only platforms and the ability to facilitate their students in the best way they possibly can. In some ways we are already preparing for the future of education as many school districts already require a mixed environment or online learning class as a requirement for high school graduation.
I have not heard many teachers discuss concerns about losing their position due to an automated system that grades and pushes students through a course. In Florida where I teach the virtual school has teachers assigned students and these teachers facilitate the learning of these students in the online environment. While the online environment is flawed due to the ability to use a search engine to find all of the answers and use a voice to text search function to answer the over the phone question and answer section it is still something that shows we are already adapting as a profession. The future will be partially live and partially virtual with some classes having their live portions streamed or video recorded ahead of time. Schools will adapt and the profession will shift to meet the needs of the students and educators, but at the end of the day the teaching profession is still going very strong.
Having the ability to facilitate online learning lessons will become more normal as we move forward. We will build contingency plans for when the next global pandemic occurs, and we will be more prepared to facilitate the learning needs of our students as a whole outside of these trying times. We will adapt, change, make errors, but at the end of the day come out on the end of this stronger and more capable of handling the online environments and distance learning far better than we may have otherwise.
Educators across the world are a clever and creative bunch of individuals who care deeply about the learners, and I have no doubt that as we move forward the human element of teaching will always be there.
Some general reflection questions to help bring this idea home. What are some things that you have done to help someone learn something that may have been out of the ordinary? How did they respond? Did that change up how you thought about a specific topic or method of teaching? Who surprised you years down the road when they came back to your classroom or on a social media platform to let you know how much you influenced their life and appreciated your patience and guidance?
We at ASK Education are building tools and a platform to support teachers and parents and to advance education. The community we build will enable a smooth process for online learning, not the emergency distance education that has had to be put in place due to the Pandemic of 2020.
Many teachers are needed to help us advance our mission. Stay in contact, give us your opinions, we are here to support you in your goal to continue to be the best teacher you can be.
Invest at http://netcapital.com/companies/ask
Take our surveys for parents and teachers on the home page at askgames.org. We use that information to build the content and tools you want and need.