Teacher in the Shell

With my mind and my body melting from the Madrid summer weather and where the sun presents itself like it is 2 in the afternoon, with the bright light still out there, even though it is 8 in the evening, I am still coming to terms with this environment. I have lived in many places, yet seemingly have never experienced living in a climate that allows the sun to shine late into the evening. Just another moment on the neverending story and endless journey of an international educator who has no place to call home.

This lack of home is what brings me to the topic for today: Technology, remote teaching and learning, and automation. Overall for me, and seemingly many of my international educator compatriots, globalization and technology has done wonders for the teaching profession. It has allowed us to leave our homes and journey to far away lands, whether it is for a job, a sense of adventure, or simple desperation, teachers are now able to teach all over the globe and potentially reach many students that were seemingly impossible to connect with, even just a few years ago. Personally, I have taught online on my own using Cambly, a low paying but also flexible teaching platform to make a little extra cash, as taught classes online through Zoom and other platforms which saved the educational process during the pandemic. It also did wonders for you if you happened to Zoom stock.

My theme throughout this course, in my own mind, to paraphrase from Blade Runner, technology is simply a tool, and can either be a benefit or a hazard. Clearly technology has assisted educators in many ways in recent years, but one, at least my own mind, must always be vigilant in analyzing everything in all ways. Putting aside the, according to some, of artificial intelligence taking over the world, which is a whole philosophical rat whole for another discussion, the focus here is automation, how it is creeping up in our society and how it may impact education and the teaching profession. Some say automation is bad simply because it will put many people out of jobs. I have never been one to stifle scientific and technology progress for the sake of economic concerns. I do not lack compassion either. If robots or automation is to put millions of workers out of jobs, I also feel society should assist these people in some way. However, that is also not what this blog is about. It is specifically about the slow push I have noticed recently towards the automation of teaching through the use of artificial intelligence and algorithms. I have seen numerous online teaching platforms presenting themselves as being able to teach people a language by having a student communicate with AI. Simply put, if you run a company, corporation, or even a school, if you can eventually eliminate all of your teaching employees, it would be to your benefit, mostly financially, and make your business run much smoother, but I think it will be an overall detriment to the students.

At least at this point in time, I feel having a real, flesh and bone teacher still creates an overall enjoyable and more holistic but also effective educational experience for the students. During the pandemic, some parents complained about the ineffectiveness and detached nature of zoom learning. At this moment in time, I feel, and fortunately for us, parents and learners still value the human touch when it comes to teaching, learning, and education as a whole. While the C level people and shareholders might continuously push for the automation of education, strictly for profit motives, but maybe for even more sinister reasons, I still feel that it will be many years before the AI will be good enough to be desired by students/parents/customers to make it mainstream. At least I hope so, for all of the teachers of the world, because who knows what the world will be like when teachers go the way of the milkmen and all of the students do not know how to use a pen or a pencil, and the electricity goes off? Then what happens? I honestly hope I am not around to find out.