Is Technology Replacing Our Teachers?

As more and more educational institutions and training providers look to go online in order to reach their students many beg the question – is technology replacing our teachers and workplace trainers?

As online technology advances, some universities are now providing all lectures online, which are often free for the general public to view. As such, more students are now turning to distance education and e-learning in place of traditional classroom learning.

Irene Green, Head of the Harcourts Academy, has a team of full-time classroom trainers across Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, South Africa and the USA and believes classroom learning is as popular and strong as ever.

“Students are still favouring classroom learning but in different ways. Take university lectures for example. The lecture may now be delivered online but students still attend classroom tutorials to discuss and better understand the knowledge they received online,” Mrs Green said.

Tim Butler, The Harcourts Academy’s Online Learning Manager, suggests that Harcourts is now flipping the idea of the classroom.

“Traditionally, students came to class to listen to information and were then set homework to apply the information learned.

“Flipping the classroom means going online at home to learn the information and then attending class to apply that knowledge in interactive ways like role playing, debating and scenario solving,” Mr Butler said.

Recently, a group of 15 Harcourts Academy trainers got together for three days to work on new ways to deliver and asses learning using technology.

At Harcourts, online learning is incorporated into pre-course tasks and homework but is also extensively used inside the Academy classrooms.

“Our trainers are able to deliver information in a new and interesting way and our students are able to learn in a leading edge plus traditional manner. Both trainers and students are loving the innovation!,” Mrs Green said.