Technology and the Internet are changing the role of the teacher from a traditional single information source, to a learning facilitator.
This was revealed at FutureEd, an education show staged at the Coca-Cola Dome in Randburg, last week.
Nestus Bosman, an education consultant of Smart Board southern Africa distributor, Vastratech, explained that education has moved away from a teacher-centred approach where one teacher would instruct a classroom full of learners.
While he said technology will never replace the teacher's role, he believes it will make learning a more collaborative approach.
He added that while there's been a lot of interest from local teachers, many teachers are still resistant to change, and claim they often don't have time to learn new technology and to develop new lessons.
“The Internet and personal computing has influenced education. And because of interactive technology, the world has shrunk from small to tiny. Technology has driven a focus on personalised education, collaboration and creative thinking.”
Bosman said the work industry is being fuelled by creativity, innovation and multi-disciplinary skills, which need to be taught at an education level.
“The classroom has moved to a place where students have grown up with computers and the Internet and have access to huge amounts of information.
“Students are encouraged to work collaboratively, instead of independently and can learn from multiple sources.”
Gary Bekker, CEO of VastraTech, said interactive white board technology can help alleviate the shortage of skilled teachers, as teachers can start using Smart Boards to provide lessons remotely.
He explained how a school in Mpumalanga set up a Smart Board and has connected to underprivileged schools in the area.
However, there is still a large technology gap between private and public-funded schools.
Bekker said mostly private schools have been able to invest in Smart Board interactive whiteboards; however, there have been some government-sponsored projects such as the Khanya Project facilitated by the Western Cape education department.
Bekker said: “The benefits we hear from teachers is that there's increased level of student attendance; students are more engaged and interested in the classroom.
“We are seeing renewed motivation coming from teachers, as Smart Boards are giving them an opportunity to get creative in the classroom.”
Highlights of the FutureEd show featured Smart Technologies, which demonstrated its interactive response system for immediate testing and tracking of learners' performance.
In addition, conferencing software Smart Bridgit showed how teachers can deliver lessons remotely to other classrooms in real-time.
According to Smart Technologies, interactive whiteboards are used by more than 1.6 million educators and more than 40 million students in classrooms in more than 100 countries.
There are more than 4 000 Smart Board interactive whiteboards in use in South African classrooms, it added.
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