Article - Critical to invest in teachers’ professional progress

I recently collaborated in another Shine.cn article about technology in Education. Here is the link to the full story, and below you can read my participation.  I strongly believe that EdTech goes beyond the technical resources, and relies on teachers preparation to use them. 

Enjoy!

https://www.shine.cn/education/1909252702/



Critical to invest in teachers’ professional progress

Every teacher I know has at some point used at least one technology tool in his/her teaching practices, whether it’s an activity, the usage of a learning management system, sharing of online documents or a simple online tool for content enrichment and review.

Ever since the first overhead projector was used in a classroom back in the 1930s (and the term “educational technology” was first coined in the 1960s), many different technologies have invaded the education space. This has allowed educators — who wanted to offer distinct and differentiated content — to employ alternative approaches to learning.

These tools have helped many education professionals to change and improve students’ learning processes. However, EdTech can be a big challenge for teachers, who require a broader and longer learning curve to master its extensive list of resources and to apply proper policies and implementation strategies.

The benefits of using EdTech tools are clear, and not limited to what we still call formal learning environments. The internet has become the most important educational tool nowadays, and smartphones are now powerful enough to handle long and real-time connections anywhere.

The current generation of students know how to make use of tech tools anytime, anywhere to the point that becomes second-nature.

This is a totally different scenario to what teachers faced previously. Some of the more experienced teachers are digital immigrants and have adapted to learn how to operate and benefit from technology, to transform it into powerful educational tools, and thereby altering teaching as a profession.

Nowadays, if there is no technology or something beyond simple data and knowledge transfer in the classroom, students become easily bored.

Thus it’s critical to invest in teachers’ professional development with regards to technology. They should be able to use coding, design, design thinking, productivity tools, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and virtual reality to teach all types of lessons.

Enabling educators to use the available and future tools becomes transformational and empowering. And the fact is, a happy teacher makes teaching and learning experiences far more pleasurable, engaging and satisfying.

At the same time, it also enriches any institution’s program and curriculum and helps bring the community together.