Teaching and Learning Philosophy
The Internet has revolutionized teaching by flattening the previous vertical structure of which the teacher is at the top and the student(s) is at the bottom. Historically, due to communication and geophysical barriers, the transfer of information and knowledge was limited to one-to-one and more recently since the industrial revolution, from one-to-many. However, current day telecommunication advancements allow this information transfer to be carried out in a many-to-many mode, and more importantly independent of human, time and space constraints. Prerecorded video lessons from 'ABC' for toddlers to advanced level mathematics for adults can be watched on the many online multimedia platforms. As such, the role of the teacher in disseminating facts or information, that can be obtained from sites such as 'Wikipedia', is no longer required. What is required, however, is a new role where teachers facilitate and engage students to learn to uncover their true potential.
I recently listened to a talk by Dr. Jean-Luc Doumont entitled 'Teaching is not Learning: Going beyond the traditional Lecture', which I highly recommend to all teachers and learners.
Click to watch his excellent lecture.