Upon doing research on upcoming trends in education this year, I came across an unbelievable thought process; with technology at every students’ fingertips, what on earth are teachers actually teaching in their classrooms? Unsure of a Maths problem? Just Google Youtube and a video will pop up to show you how to solve it. Looking for a date or time in History? Just ask Siri. In need of a Xhosa oral? Just hit the translate button and your oral is there in seconds, and let’s hope it is grammatically correct too.
But what is the directive of the teacher? What do they do instead of delivering information? Well, you see, the answer is actually an exciting (and relatively demanding) one!
According to a study conducted by Microsoft, researchers studied the brain activity of over 2,000 participants and Microsoft found that since the year 2000 (where the mobile interactions began) the average attention span of these participants dropped from 12 to 8 percent.
This means that students’ attention spans are less, they are easily distracted by the multiple streams of media, however, they are able to multitask better. And so what does this mean to the average teacher?
It has put an exciting spin on the delivery of content within the four walls of a classroom. Visual aids need to be creative, interactive and fun! Oral delivery needs to be engaging, involve storytelling and way more interaction between students and teachers alike. Besides delivery, teachers are collaborating more, sharing ideas and there is a focus of modernizing the curriculum; for example History teachers are creating different opportunities to deliver the past in a more progressive manner. Schools tend to be focusing on soft skills in education because studies have shown that in order to survive the modern working world, these upcoming generations need to acquire strong communicative skills, leadership ability and teamwork.
Collaboration is key!
And within all these complexities of the educational environment, teachers have become the facilitators and ‘guides’ to show their students the correct pathway to lead to success. Now doesn’t this mimic what the modern working world is all about?
Hats off to you, for being the ever changing educator who shows students what success looks like!
