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Will online education replace classroom education anytime soon?

Over the last decade, the number of people taking online courses and using technology as a tool to enhance their education has increased dramatically. You can now master a foreign language or complete a whole degree without leaving the comfort of your sofa. You can decide not only when you want to learn but also how you want to learn. Meanwhile, the range of technology used inside the classroom has also boomed, with the rise of smartboards, digital textbooks and, most notably, the tools offered on the Internet. But what does this mean for teachers? While many teachers are excited by technology, others are concerned by its rapid development. They wonder whether they themselves could be replaced.

Technology gives us abundant opportunities. In a geography lesson, we can now transport students to explore another country. In an English class, we can take them back in time to experience Shakespeare’s plays as they were performed during his lifetime. Students are able to watch videos at home that explain how to use algebra, or allow them to see first-hand the life cycle of a plant. Technology doesn’t discriminate based on a student’s ability or skill. It provides an opportunity to engage students using a medium that they recognise. Technology is growing not just within our classrooms but also in our everyday lives, so it is natural that we should increasingly incorporate it into classrooms.

Crucially, the use of technology in the classroom doesn’t lessen the need for great teachers. In fact, it is great teachers who make using technology so significant in students’ education. Whilst technology is able to take on a whole host of tasks, it does have its shortcomings. The most prominent drawback is its inability to interact with humans. Technology can facilitate the learning process. However, it cannot replace the role of the teacher. Computers do not teach children to question, to discriminate among sources of information, to weigh perspectives. They do not explain how to think about consequences, to bring contextual meaning to a situation, to be creative, or to make careful judgments. Without a great teacher, technology merely becomes an automated tool and stops inspiring and engaging students. Ultimately, it isn’t about teachers being replaced by technology but how teachers can adapt to incorporate technology in their lessons.

As much innovation as the iPad may bring to the classroom, it is not going to replace a teacher anytime soon. In fact, the influx of technology like iPads means there is a greater need for teachers. We need teachers who are part early adopter, part integrator, and part mad scientist. The modern teacher must be willing to take chances and able to figure out not just how technology works, but how it works for each student, and where its use is most appropriate.

The question of whether technology will replace teachers is an age-old debate and one that is likely to continue as technology evolves further. In the same way that the calculator didn’t displace maths teachers, technology will continue aiding teachers to educate well-rounded and engaged students. As our Hugo Wernhoff notes, “We’re not only in it to offer flexibility in time and place for students, or lower costs for providers. Our main ambition is instead to deliver better learning.” Technology can only assist in delivering better learning when it is used by a great teacher. Students will always benefit from the guidance and instruction of a teacher at the front of a classroom.