What Comes Next?

In the recent wave of school closings and opting to go to remote learning, Beard (2020) poses the question of how this will affect education in the future. Beard uses the anecdote of a Chinese learner and now entrepreneur, Haoyang Li, who boasts that the Chinese simply are "better" at education than the English because of cultural differences. Li founded Squirrel AI, a company that is among others using computer algorithms to guide learners with only a few "super teachers". Companies such as Li's claim that by separating the learner from the teacher, it creates concentration on the education itself rather than the social aspect.

This article is of particular interest this week since many of us are moving to remote teaching and hosting content online. After this is over it will raise many questions. Why are teachers necessary? What role do teachers and the education system play in our society? Can education be hosted all online to change the way we live our lives. I found this article to be interesting because so much of what we do as teachers is build relationships and whenever I explain my job, I almost never see myself as a deliverer of content. I can't help but wonder if Li's vision could work in a society such as ours that tends to be driven by social situations and reader response. For example, go into most English classrooms and we are teaching interaction and thought rather than spelling and grammar. I can't help but wonder if this is a cultural disconnect or simply one man's experience that maybe doesn't translate to me? What I know is we are all about to embark on an educational revolution and should hold on to what we love so dear: teaching.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/mar/19/can-computers-ever-replace-the-classroom