An open letter to the would be teachers

This letter is to all those teachers who might have missed the most important reflection point of their life: What is it that can make you a teacher and should you become one now? It is important to accept that the world has changed to a great extent when it comes to learning in 21st century. We all know that the kids who are entering the structures erected as educational institutions in the 20th century, irrespective of the knowledge levels administered, are different from those kids who entered the same structures in 20th century. The case in point for a learner is that any learner who continuously seek learning remains a kid irrespective of the time at which learning is happening.

The kids, albeit those seeking learning, in those days were not techno-literates. It is important to make this distinction. The technology, that was once understood to be facilitating the creation of gadgets of some kind or automation of the processes of goods and services industries, has transformed itself into an entity that needs to be now recognized very differently and perhaps similar to other interactive and integrated entities like families, organizations and communities that existed before technology was accepted to be everywhere. Technology, in particular information technology. cannot be treated as a separate industry existing like manufacturing or retail. It is an entity that has come to existence in the 21st century that demands and commands interactions and integrations as other entities – may be even supporting the Cyborg theories to come alive again presenting different perspectives for learning and teaching.

It is important to understand that tools which were externalizing the thoughts and the thoughts which were internalizing the tools have evolved into something that totally unrecognizable either as tools or as thoughts as technology is permeating into everyone’s lives in unknown ways due to information-age syndrome that we are now experiencing in the 21st century.

This is how learning is unfolding. Learners are no more interested in just knowing the facts. Once the basic levels of literacy and numeracy are achieved, many 20th century educational structures beyond the elementary school level render themselves either ineffective or misaligned to the current needs of the learners. As facts are available openly to either search to validate independently, and at anytime, or use them as facts to construct something else, many instructionist approaches fall shot to motivate learning. We can see an increasing trend where the behaviorist principles that mostly governed the teaching methods in 20th century have yielded to constructivist principles that are now prevailing or governing the teaching methods of 21st century.

Instead of debating whether it was a natural progression or was influenced by the ease of use and accessibility of technology, let us, for a moment, accept the world as learners see it today. They are connected through social media and search engines like Google make learning on the go as an activity that can be pursued at any time and anywhere.  Television as a passive media pales into obscurity to obtain information when needed. Even the documentaries that are once the predominantly available through Television is now available anytime, anywhere, on other media channels like YouTube on the Internet. Many of the television channels now have website counterparts making the programs that were once broadcasted on television now available for short amounts of time for streaming and viewing on the internet, and, on hand held devices like smartphones and tablets making viewing not a lounge-room activity, but a when needed activity. This is the current state of affairs with learners of today as compared to learners of 20th century that teachers have to deal with.

This information-age mindset is necessary if teachers of tomorrow are to be created and to create a mindset that can still make learning happen through teachers. QTIME learning advocates that learning in Innovation dimension (one of the four learning dimensions of QTIME) necessarily consists of learning in four quadrants of the Innovation dimension – unlearning, relearning, rebranding and resourcing – each learning quadrant creating a mindset to help realign the 20th century mindset of what learning is or how learning has to happen to facilitating the learning; making constructivist principles as the starting point to make learning happen; and, augmenting it by behaviorist principles of learning to direct the learning wherever and whenever necessary.

There is an excellent book (collection of essays – titled Connected Minds, Emerging Cultures published by InformationAge) that takes a good hard look at the learners of today from the perspectives of connected minds and sees the emerging cultures as a result of that. Distance education that once played a secondary role in 20th century is now at the forefront making learning happening by way of e-learning possibilities that are now making learning possible at any corner of the world from any corner of the world. Swami Vivekananda once said that ‘education is the manifestation of the perfection that is already in you’ and ‘take education to the doorstep of every learner’, both were distinct possibilities in the 20th century, but are definite possibilities in the 21st century. QTIME learning is acting as a catalyst for the needed transformation.

The established structures of 20th century mostly propagated a linear learning perhaps modelled on having the basics as the solid foundation to build from. That has to change now to accept the learning happening on the go outside the structures. Rethinking on the accreditation processes necessary to include independent learning, just-in-time learning, and, to throw away the pre-established notions of certain pre-requisites for accreditation to be able to embrace independent teachers and trainers in its fold to truly evolve and transform the 2000 year old structures into 21st century learning centers housing teachers, educators, trainers, consultants and administrators alike to rekindle the fire to learn in the 21st century learners .

Once it is understood that,

  • the starting points for today’s learners are vastly different from those of 20th century learners and will be different for each learner; the path that is in front of them cannot be linear but be made cyclical and continuous;
  • the learning often happens through trial and error- often faster than the labs;
  • behaviorist principles are still valid and applicable from a motivational perspective to help transfer the information from the short term memory to the long term memory;
  • the experiential learning is already happening and is establishing knowledge acquisition in the long term memory on a continuous basis;
  • accreditation processes need flexibility and should be made responsive to change its requirements of going through a learning to be capable of evaluating the independent learning;
  • the list of differences will not be finite to show that the teachers are not necessarily making learning happen but are managing learning;
  • it is better not to restrain the learners to spend pre-established years in school or college to make them productive;
  • it is better for today’s learners to think sustaining the world that is often ravaged by wasteful productions under the guise of 20th century efficient processes; and,
  • changing the perception of the world as being materialistic to being a world that needs to be sustained,

you will know whether you want to become a teacher in 21st century or you have it in you to become one or would rather become a responsible citizen contributing in other ways to collaborate with teachers to make their efforts efficient to help them deliver new and relevant learning on a continuous basis.