Digital Competence:

Can teachers be replaced by technology in the future?

Within this blog post I will be discussing many perspectives and realities on if teachers can actually be replaced by technology within the near future? In modern times as George Monbiot (2017) states that “in the future, if you want a job you must be as unlike a machine as possible”. As far as this point goes I believe Monbiot has a very fair point that he is trying to convey which as far as this blog post goes if very valid. As humans we can convey and demonstrate emotions, critical thinking, social skills and empathy and sympathy of course which most robots or artificial intelligence (AI) wouldn’t be able to come across as we do. However the realities of AI in modern times are turning out to becoming more of a reality rather than a dream, with all of the implementation in schools nowadays it’s hard to ignore how technology is becoming overwhelming in our education and confusing almost for the youth that has yet to experience little or any technology within their education.

On the positive side of technology as mentioned by Matthew Lynch (2017) as he states that technology can be a major tool within a classroom environment and can be a lot more than an annoying phone going off in the middle of a lesson. The message to grasp when looking into technology being used in a classroom from an observer’s perspective is to consider that it can work as both a pedagogical resource as well as engaging younger students in the classroom environment. A few concepts to consider when seeing the positive side of technology within the classroom is the use of the real-world issues within the classroom as by using resources such as the internet it opens up essentially a whole other door for the students as well as the teacher in terms of resources and lessons that can be based around real life events and people which can engage students more in lessons and activities as it is perceived more as a reality rather than an education. Along with all of this Impact Teachers (2017) mention how exciting the possibilities are for modern day teaching, as they can’t only have an effect on the younger population who wouldn’t know any different but an uplifting effect on the teenagers who are in education who can new use the innovative apps that have been created to make more draining and less exciting tasks such as revising more ‘enjoyable’ and fun to a certain extent.

On the other hand technology does have its negatives, costing and student distraction are seemingly the most negative effects technology is having within the classroom at this point in time as Timothy Smithee says in an article he wrote on the negative effects of using technology in today’s classroom that the costing around technology is a big problem as you can imagine supplying a classroom with the amount of laptops needed to be efficient for any student would be pricey. In addition to the costs of actually supplying the equipment, the maintenance and the initial cost of setting up a network able to hold all of the laptops or electrical devices can be costly as well. Even though a student may be more engaged and excited about using or preparing something such as a PowerPoint presentation, this could have an overall negative effect as said by Vawn Himmelsbach (2019) an education professor he says that “technology in the classroom can be distracting and even foster cheating”. As well as doing so in recent studies it shows that the majority of students actually spend more time an effort on doing things such as making a presentation rather than doing the research that the project was actually meant to be based upon. As well as these many factors student distraction is a valid point which comes up upon most online articles including the one created by Impact Teachers who convey the point that gaming, texting and other websites which grasp the students’ attention rather than focusing on the task at hand. Research done by Harvard University shows that 92% of college students have reported using their phones to send text messages or for general use in the duration of time they are in class. These are astronomical figures and goes to show the reality of the effect technology can have on students in higher education as well as lower. Richard Adams (2016) an education editor states that “the results from our randomised experiment suggest that computer devices have a substantial negative effect on academic performance”. This point is conveyed online a lot and all in all is a very valid and relevant point as the use of technology within the classroom is seemingly distracting and disrupting learning and seems to be outweighing the note taking and research during study and lesson times.

Back to the positive side of things Charley Rogers (2017) believes that “96% of teachers say tech has a positive impact on education”. This is an uplifting and positive side of technology on education as it displays how teachers are adapting and overcoming the almost overwhelming reality of using technology the majority of time when teaching. From personal experience and being a teaching assistant during my work placement a couple of years back, technology is almost seen as a necessity in modern education, during my personal experience technology is a huge tool rather than a distraction which is the view seen by many. As I still use technology every single day within education it is hard to imagine what it would be like without it in our system as it is such a normal thing and I feel everybody finds it useful to some extent. The Knowledge Academy also found that “49% of teachers admit tech has made them more efficient at planning and giving lessons”. This reflects on my point that I have previously made that it not only can provide support for students and make their life easier but also the teachers.

As far as AI goes when it comes to replacing teachers Matthew Lynch (2018) believes that “Artificial intelligence will never replace teachers”. For the following reasons that if you are a human teacher you will always be needed regardless of circumstance and statistics found by researchers as a human is the only person with real life creativity, real life class room management skills and the only person who can provide empathy with the encouragement that is needed to help them succeed. Lynch comments on how a large part of education for the children and younger age ranges is teaching the students social-emotional skill which would be unlikely to be taught from an AI system that seemingly has no past or history of events to remember. However AI systems have recently shown that they can in fact teach student’s maths, English, reading and writing skills however teaching pupils emotional and social skills are more complex. From the research I have done prior to writing this now, this opinion is one of the most valid out there as it is the plain and simple truth behind AI systems. A long with this the reality is that students may be brain washed into society with technology and know nothing less, teachers can help children and students gather a large knowledge base from the using the resources given. As well as this the emotional connection children have with teachers is one of the most crucial factors according to an academic journal written by Liu, Jing-qui (2012) as she says that the importance of the relationships between teachers and students is crucial to students’ academic and psychological development. With this according to Liu, Jing-qui the longer the relationship lasts, the better chance the teachers have on exerting a positive influence on the students. From prior experience I can agree that this is true as bad relationships with teachers result in nothing but negatives but could AI’s solve this issue?

To reflect on my points made I believe that technologies positives outweigh the negatives heavily in my opinion however, there are downsides to technology such as distraction but not everything is always going to be positive. From personal experience and the prior research I have done for this blog post I truly believe that technology has endless possibilities and can push education to go further than ever before, with the help of human input as I still believe that AI could never convey and portray the emotional and social connection teachers have with their pupils. However with AI and the teachers that will never be obsolete in my opinion education can push to new limits further than ever before.

Reference List:

 Teachers, I. (n.d.). The UK is becoming a world-leading hub for education technology - Impact Teachers. [online] Impact Teachers. Available at: https://www.impactteachers.com/uk-becoming-world-leading-hub-education-technology/educational-news [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].

Monbiot, G. (2017). In the age of robots, our schools are teaching children to be redundant | George Monbiot. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/15/robots-schools-teaching-children-redundant-testing-learn-future#img-1 [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].

 Edtech, W., Kids, S., Stories, M., Hotspot, H., Computing, T., Brain, H., Writing, P., Math, P., Everyone, U. and Computing, R. (2016). 7 Ways Technology Is Impacting Modern Education - The Tech Edvocate. [online] The Tech Edvocate. Available at: https://www.thetechedvocate.org/7-ways-technology-impacting-modern-education/ [Accessed 12 Apr. 2019].

 Bokcenter.harvard.edu. (2012). Technology and Student Distraction. [online] Available at: https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/technology-and-student-distraction [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].

: Khomami, N. (2017). A tool or a distraction? How UK schools' approaches to mobile phones vary widely. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/dec/15/schools-approach-to-mobile-phones-varies-widely-in-uk [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].

 Education Technology. (2018). [online] Available at: https://edtechnology.co.uk/Article/96-of-teachers-say-tech-has-a-positive-impact-on-education/ [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].

 Edtech, W., Kids, S., Stories, M., Hotspot, H., Computing, T., Brain, H., Writing, P., Math, P., Everyone, U. and Computing, R. (2017). Why Artificial Intelligence Will Never Replace Teachers - The Tech Edvocate. [online] The Tech Edvocate. Available at: https://www.thetechedvocate.org/artificial-intelligence-will-never-replace-teachers/ [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].

 Liu, J. (2012). The Emotional Bond between Teachers and Students: Multi-Year Relationships. [online] Questia.com. Available at: https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-20044872/the-emotional-bond-between-teachers-and-students [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].