Computers empower evolvement, without doubt, technology has been the key stimulus in evolution. Teachers need computers to advance education– learning the art of telling computers what to do, would certainly empower the teaching methodology so much so that engagement, connection, translation and knowledge transfer becomes seamless and effective with the learners and needless to say, computers also create convenience in the workflow of teachers and learners.
But this also provokes me to wonder, why is it necessary now, like never before? In the past generations, teachers didn’t felt the need to adopt computers for teaching– engagement, connect and everything else was just fine. Every year they would churn out so many future scientists, doctors, artists, lawyers, and other geniuses from their schools but they never used any computers for teaching or even felt the need, so why it necessary now? What difference does it going to make now? If I don’t find an answer to this question then everything that I said, in the beginning, wouldn’t hold up.
In the last few decades, the rate at which our civilization evolved through technology is a mindboggling phenomenon and that momentum could escalate ten folds in the near future.
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The Gen-Z, from the moment they were born, they almost immediately adapt to the modernity and they become extremely curious to explore. They have easy access to an abundance of information that encourages them to ideate in unconventional ways. Let’s time-travel a decade back– we didn’t have eCommerce, no digital wallets, social media was just a mere platform to kill boredom– it didn’t create or help/manage businesses as such, we had to queue up to book movie tickets, ride-sharing services, food delivery services didn’t exist, the way we use to listen to music was different and the way we watch movies was different– our access to movies was limited, we didn’t have any AI at home but now, a decade later, we have so many digital products & services that emerged, have become part of our lives. There are newer jobs, newer domains of work that didn’t exist when millennials were in school. Likewise, we don’t know how it is going to be in the next decade. Teachers have to deal with these curious proactive learners who are going to work at or create jobs that don’t exist now. So that is why as teachers it is not only enough for us to stay relevant to the trend, but it is also important to foresee scenarios as much as possible and facilitate learners to face the unknown.
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And for that, it is very important to use computers to disrupt our methodology, update the content regularly, to challenge, to stay one step ahead of the change and to feed the inquisitive, unconventional and unafraid minds of Gen-Zs. No matter what subject or which grade, we need to adopt a progressive framework to suit this generation and of course to also prove Roger Waters was damn wrong when he wrote about teachers in ‘Another brick in the wall’.
What have I learned in this course?
I learnt about block programming– introduced to Scratch, Alice and Snap! Although I majored in Computer Science during my high school, where I was taught C++, C and Java, I was totally out of touch and never took any effort to update, learn or explore programming any further. So during this past few weeks in CS sessions with Mr.Mick, it definitely rekindled my interest in programming– I’m hoping to learn Python or JavaScript before this year ends. Thanks to Mr.Mick!
Adios,
Preeth Walser
Marketing & Communications Manager
