In “Are Schools Irrelevant?” by Deven Black he poses this very question. This is something that I have been pondering over all summer. I have wondered how much longer the career of teacher will last and when will schools convert to a strictly online environment.

These are troubling thoughts for those of us who love our jobs as teachers and want to be able to interact with our students and guide them towards lifelong learning. While I integrate technology as much as I can into my class, I also enjoy the interaction with the students in the classroom. However, with information so readily available online, will teachers be needed at all? The answer, I believe, is yes.

Although the information is out there for those who are willing to find it, not everyone knows where to look or how to determine if what they have found is reliable. This is where the role of the educator will come in to play. It is our job to present students with the fundamental knowledge that they need in each content area as we have always done. We have a new role that we must add to our traditional one and this is to teach our students how to search out information, judge its reliability, and learn from it. So while many are starting to say that the role of a teacher will soon be outdated, I stand firmly that teachers will be needed, but in an evolved role resembling a guide.

As for the brick and mortar schools, The U.S. Department of Education has been looking into that topic and have put a temporary rest to the fears of teachers. They have recently released a new study on this very topic. Having looked at data from online only learning, classroom only learning, and a mix of both online and classroom learning, they have determined that students perform best in a setting where they are engaged in both the classroom and online. This is referred to as “blended instruction”.

The meta analysis showed that “blended” instruction – combining elements of online and face-to-face instruction – had a larger advantage relative to purely face to face instruction or instruction conducted wholly online. The analysis also showed that the instruction conducted wholly on line was more effective in improving student achievement than the purely face to face instruction. In addition, the report noted that the blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions.

The disturbing part of their research is that they point out that when “blended instruction” is taken out of the mix that a purely online environment is more effective than a purely face to face one. This is something that we, as teachers, need to look at more closely. While most of us are incorporating an online portion to our classes these days, we need to think about what the online teachers are doing to accomplish the results that they are getting. What are we missing?

Recent news is showing an increase in the use of social networks and online games being used by online course instructors. The majority of these social networks are blocked by most schools however, and gaming is usually discouraged. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released WaterLife which several schools are looking into adopting into their science programs. While playing WaterLife students will learn about estuaries and their benefits to both ocean life and humans. I believe that games such as these are beneficial to students and help them learn while having fun at the same time.

As teachers in the 21st century we need to be open to new ways of presenting information to students. We also need to be able to present this information to both parents and school administration and encourage them to accept these as valid tools in education.

We are beginning to see more and more news about how digital footprints are affecting people entering college and applying for jobs. It is important for our students to understand how the information that they place on the internet can have an impact on them later in life.

While this video does not answer all of the questions that need to be addressed, it certainly is a good conversation starter. I recommend showing this to students at the beginning of the year to open up the discussion about using the online world responsibly.

I especially enjoyed where Steven writes about a conference he recently attended. He explains Twitter was being used by participants during the conference and how it exploded into a global conversation:

At first, all these tweets came from inside the room and were created exclusively by conference participants tapping away on their laptops or BlackBerrys. But within half an hour or so, word began to seep out into the Twittersphere that an interesting conversation about the future of schools was happening at #hackedu. A few tweets appeared on the screen from strangers announcing that they were following the #hackedu thread. Then others joined the conversation, adding their observations or proposing topics for further exploration. A few experts grumbled publicly about how they hadn’t been invited to the conference. Back in the room, we pulled interesting ideas and questions from the screen and integrated them into our face-to-face conversation.

When the conference wrapped up at the end of the day, there was a public record of hundreds of tweets documenting the conversation. And the conversation continued — if you search Twitter for #hackedu, you’ll find dozens of new comments posted…

I have been using Twitter for a while now to post articles I find and want to share, to read updates from others, and to update others on what I am doing. It was not until after reading Steven’s article that I decided to delve into the search function of Twitter to see what I could find. I did a search for #iranelection and the results came up just as they would in any other search. The wonderful thing about Twitter though is that about 20 seconds later a message appeared at the top of my screen that said “122 more results since you started your search”. People around the world connecting and discussing topics with an automatic update every few seconds…..that is what I love about Twitter.

Please read Steven Johnson’s article: How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live here.