“Role of teachers – In the digital Era”

Dr. Sampreety Gogoi | YOUNG GEN
Assistant Professor, College of Community Science
Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam

In ancient India the teachers were spiritual and intellectual fathers of the thought. Education was impossible without a teacher; he was regarded as guru. The relationship of the pupil with his guru was very spiritual, intimate and cordial and there was no financial relation with the guru. In many instances the teacher would support his pupil and there weren’t any material relations. The teacher or the guru was the institution himself, the Alma mater.
But gradually the role of the teacher has changed from being a sage to a facilitator. In the entire learning process the education system has evolved considerably from Vedic time. Classroom learning was efficiently facilitated entirely using the blackboard and lecture method, but gradually technology has entered classrooms with different audio-visual aids. This has helped the teachers to enhance the quality of the teaching learning process. In today’s computer age the role of teachers has changed drastically, teachers today act as a guide in the journey of learning and enable the student to achieve the best of themselves.
Teachers today must do much more than teaching, they have to be counsellors, psychologists, pedagogical leaders and the most important a friend for the students. The teachers today try to develop multi dimensional skills in their students and teach them both life skills and soft skills which are very important. Teachers put in continuous effort to adopt innovative teaching methodology and their main focus is to make learning more fun and interesting for every student and ignite multiple intelligences within them. As education is not merely a ladder to get a job but a way of life.
With the onset of Covid -19 lockdowns education has largely moved online. As there is a digital push for education in times of COVID-19 induced lockdown, classes on Zoom, WhatsApp and Google classrooms are becoming the norm for students and are helping to keep students abreast with the curriculum by keeping them safe and healthy at home. When coming to the point of e -learning some teachers were not familiar with various virtual platforms. Since the teachers are dedicated toward the passion of teaching, despite their age, they prepared themselves for the digital classroom and tried to become familiar with all the necessary tools and tried to be internet savvy. These in turn have made them confident in use of technology, an advantage of Covid 19 pandemic. There are some challenges in the digital classes like getting the attention of the students is not an easy task, the students might lose interest in online classes if the teaching style is monotonous and has no creativity. To grab the attention of students in the digital classroom, the class must be highly interactive. Many a time connectivity is a major problem for both the teachers and the students. Despite these challenges, there is no choice but to turn to digital learning.
E – learning is the perfect teaching tool if used effectively, research suggests that online learning has been shown to increase retention of information and take less time. The National Education Policy (NEP2020) has a vision for digital education. According to the recommendations of NEP 2020, online education needs to be an alternative mode of quality education whenever and wherever traditional modes are not possible. Under the policy, a new autonomous body – National Education Technology Forum (NETF) will be set up which will develop adoption of digital practices at all levels of education, including classroom methods and teacher’s professional development content for institutions and to integrate technological advancement into classrooms. Teachers have risen to the challenge with fortitude by getting accustomed to the new digital lessons and proved to adjust to every situation. To the world we may be just a teacher, but for our students we are the hero.

Sanghmitra Navalgund | YOUNG GEN
Assistant Professor, College of Home Science
Nirmala Niketan, Mumba9

Digital India is not a new buzz word for anyone. India has digitized many of its operations. Digitization of the educational system is the new mantra. The new normal has forced educationists to experiment with newer methods of imparting education and letting it reach students across the globe. Teachers have always strived to incorporate creative methods of teaching to make concepts easy. The same teachers are now facing a newer challenge on how to be more creative in online teaching. The education system is constantly demanding better and higher quality of education to the learners. With the changing expectation of the world the roles of teachers are becoming more complex and demanding. Expectation from the teachers are changing with the world moving towards a technology orientation and the younger generations being very tech savvy.
There is a paradigm shift in the teaching learning process and the change is inevitable. Whether it’s online classes or offline classes, teachers are expected to be technology oriented. There are many perspectives to look at the changing role of teachers in the digital world. Despite various challenges faced by teachers due to diverse students’ group and their demands, digitization has opened up opportunities for the teachers to play various roles. Digital education has given a platform to the teachers to enhance various skills required to impart quality education to learners. Networking has given them a wide exposure to reach a larger group of students as well as experts. The challenges and opportunities have also opened up avenues for teachers to experiment with the curriculum in regard to its designing and delivery. The digital generation, I may call them D-Gen is updated with social issues and well connected to current affairs. The more the teachers can match with them on the same platform, it will increase the connect of teachers with the students. The role of teachers especially with the older students have changed from teacher students’ relations to a mentor – mentee relation. The role of teachers from an instructor has been changed to a facilitator. They are responsible for changing attitudes of the learners towards motivated learning to acquire knowledge. The students are no longer confined to a small place. The entire world is open for them to gain knowledge which is forcing the teachers to be more open to take up new and improved methods of teaching. The way knowledge is unlimited, the role a teacher can play in this digital era is also limitless.

Dr. Arnab Sen | MID GEN
Associate Professor, Textile Design
National Institute of Fashion Technology, Bhopal

The simple concept is to be ahead of the students as well as the present times so that the latest updates in all fields may be delivered in the classrooms. But what if the classrooms cease to exist. Perhaps that’s the situation we were thrown into by the Covid-19 pandemic. The fun here was that the teacher must learn not only about the subject and how to teach it without formal classrooms but also about crossing the boundaries of the subjects. A simple example is to know how to handle the online tools that help the teachers go online with the classes. Teachers were now required to know how these software work, how to schedule a class and add students, how to share videos & materials etc. It was entirely a new ball game that nobody was trained formally to carry out earlier.
So, the fun began! Contrary to the earlier days, teachers didn’t need to be motivated to learn! They switched to a self-learning mode. They were competing in learning Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Kahoot, and so many other newer things we never bothered to know earlier that they existed. Teachers are in a race to outperform each other in knowing more tools and about more ways to manage their devices. Many of them who never thought a laptop could be connected to the internet without a dongle started doing it using the phone. It was a huge leap ahead in such a short time!
The curricula keep on evolving and so the trainings happen. But all that proceed at a slower pace. And so we the teachers are used to a slow-going life where there’s always a tomorrow. This entire perspective took a hit after the pandemic. We had to learn many new things fast, most of which were beyond the subject. And we were no more complaining, rather more eager to do it! It simply proved that we may pretend to be tortoises, but we can become the hare if the situation demands. Very few professional segments of the society other than the teachers have perhaps displayed such flexibility during the most trying times in our lifetime. There was always a hidden challenge- from the students. When it comes to being digital & using the smartphone, it’s difficult to beat them. In case of classroom teaching, the teacher always knows more. But digitally, the students may know a lot more than expected if they do the homework for the classes before start. The teachers therefore had to go that extra mile too to beat the students, and they did that with the help of two means. One was to find out unique but relevant video tutorials that the students don’t have the time and will to search out. This needed burning the midnight oil. The other means was to learn the specific software applications that can now come in handy to teach a subject. For me, as an instance, it was a great opportunity to pick out free downloadable woven design software applications which I guessed never existed earlier. And after my efforts, I found at least 3 such helpful software for my students.
To sum up, little time and a huge workload that included parallel learning & teaching was the need of the hour. As I see around, most of my colleagues across the world have been up to the challenge and have delivered better than they themselves expected. They prove that they are not tortoises although they might pretend to be, and it’s not going to be a cakewalk for the next generation to outperform the present teachers. These people know how to keep ahead of time. The doctors, nurses & health professionals, police, government employees have done an outstanding job during the pandemic worldwide, but nobody has even a sense of what the teachers have been doing all this while. One day, for sure, people will appreciate that the teachers have turned the world of teaching upside down within the last six months, an effort that otherwise would have taken decades to happen.

Deepa Ayachit | MID GEN
Life Coach, NLP, CBT, REBT Practitioner, Trainer
JLU Center for Professional Skills, Bhopal

Take a moment to go down memory lane to remember an inspirational teacher who has made an impact on your life. You might not have seen them for many years, yet they are vividly present in your memory. You may be still able to recall how they helped to form you into the person that you are today.
Teachers play an indispensable role in everyone’s life. They teach, empower, help draw real-life connections, encourage, facilitate the entire journey of self-development and have the power to change the life and ignite in the most perfect way. In this era of globalization, there has been a paradigm shift in the role of a teacher from a preacher to a manager of learner’s social and emotional behavior; from a teacher to a mentor for honing the over persona. The role of teacher in the digital era is even more complex. The blended teaching-learning methods expects an educator to move from teacher-centric to student-centric environment; from talk and show to inquiry which in due course will be able to leverage on each student’s abilities, interests and learning styles.
With massive revolution in knowledge and increased public demand for better leaning, a teacher must be a fast learner in the digital environment yet motivating the slow learners to become independent professionals. Technology allows teachers to upgrade their knowledge from the vast resources available. It also helps teachers to discover solutions to complex problems collaboratively. They can join communities to share their knowledge with a pool of experts. These communities can also be used for discussion and to give answers to their students about almost everything without delay using various platforms. Technology allows teachers to use search engines to enrich the content of their lessons, foster in students the interest for a subject and increase the engagement with their matter. In this new context the teacher should act as a quality and quantity filter for the huge amount of information available on the internet. The push to digitalization will not be an easy journey for the educators. Educators also need to acquire various technological competencies to enhance efficiency of the online delivery.
These may include
1. Researching skills to include safe usable online resources for students.
2. Presentation skills to make effective online presentation using multimedia and software.
3. Communication Skills to use digital tools for various communications with all the stakeholders.
4. Management skills to produce, manage, organize and analyze teaching learning documents
In order to facilitate the entire shift from traditional teaching to the new normal of digitalization, a major role should be played by the Policy makers. A single approach of professional development may not work. Each institute should develop customized plan for the educators. They have to stand tall to motivate and encourage the teachers to cope with the sudden unprecedented change. They need to organize various training program to enhance skills and competencies. With this support, the foundation of our education systems, our teachers will soon do wonders.

Dr. Ava Phukan | SENIOR GEN
Professor, Assam Agricultural University
Jorhat, Assam

A teacher is one who helps students acquire knowledge, competence or virtue. Informally the role of a teacher may be taken on by anyone. The teachers need to ensure a good atmosphere in their classrooms and maintain healthy relationships with students, parents and staff.
A Teachers’ role has become complex in today’s changing world where access to knowledge is almost unlimited. Teachers are expected to become technologically savvy and take responsibility not only for their teaching but also for their students’ learning. They must cater to the special needs of individual students in heterogeneous classes and create a student-centered learning environment. Teachers need to do justice to the standards of the curriculum while enhancing students’ creativity, curiosity and motivation. However, the question of how to embed technological changes in education without posing a threat to human values and unblemished learning remains unresolved.
What is the traditional way of teaching?
Traditional method of teaching is when a teacher directs students to learn through memorization and recitation techniques thereby not developing their critical thinking problem solving and decision-making skills as opposed to a constructivist approach to teaching involving more interaction with the students.
Teacher in a Digital Era
Technology nowadays has entered every walk of life. In this era of technology, the digital revolution has transformed almost everything from our work at our organizations to our daily routines. It is transforming the way children and young people play, access information, communicate with each other, learn, relearn and unlearn. But now this revolution has profoundly permeated the Education sector and at all levels i.e. School level, College level and University level. Now we talk of use of Interactive smart boards, hybrid or blended learning, flipped classrooms and digital libraries etc. during teaching learning processes. Due to this, most of the teaching and learning processes in the classrooms these days are changing from autocratic style to democratic or participatory style where learners play an active role. On the other hand, Teachers, Instructors and Higher Faculties are facing unprecedented changes with often larger classes, more diverse students with diverse needs, demands from State, Society and employers who want more accountability and above all, all this with ever changing technology. To handle change of this nature, the role of a teacher and instructor becomes more challenging and demanding and hence requires attention. Thus, the teachers in this ever-changing digital era need a good balance of theoretical and practical knowledge to provide a solid foundation for their teaching.
While there are challenges, there are also opportunities for a teacher to change as businesses around the globe are fast-moving and technology oriented. The changing scenarios in the boardrooms are bringing change in curriculum. The teacher, who once spoke for a scheduled time, is now open to interactive Q&A sessions during a lecture. And yes, a lecturer has a digital reference material to share with students. Students today are well-informed, with an almost infinite digital resource at hand. These students need not be taught the basics. They follow the subject they are passionate about, and most probably have worked as summer interns as well. These budding professionals need more mentorship, as to which resources to refer online. They need guidance on which path to choose amidst a list of options readily available on mobile. The internet has national and international forums and dedicated communities who follow a specific area of interest such as marketing, healthcare or finance.
The technological disruption in education cannot replace the core role of a teacher as a person who inspires others to succeed with values and knowledge. Students look forward to giving ear to such teachers who can reflect the changes across industries. At the same time, successful professionals from private and government organizations are becoming the new face of teachers as visiting faculty. Such professionals, among other things, help students accomplish application of theory at work.
Each teacher must reflect on the changes he/she needs to make in teaching. Every teacher must look at studying the various changes in classrooms across other countries. Besides knowledge, the teacher must acquire skills to handle basic digital formats such as power point presentations. Within the rapid changes in communication techniques, pedagogy, and developments in knowledge, it is vital that educators are familiar with new educational changes, mainly those changes which are connected to technology. Change can be accompanied by fear, and thus some teachers might resist changing. In the digital age, some teachers might be reluctant to change because they feel they are immigrants in the digital world.