Romy,
Most Excellent points.
In my years of teaching technology students often knew more than I did about certain subjects. So I found ways to make those kids leaders for that lesson. These kids were often quieter and more introverted, but for the duration of the lesson, they were knowledge holders and shared it with their peers as the whole class advanced together.
In peer re-view, I witnessed the difficulty my fellow more traditional teachers had in allowing students who obviously had an indepth knowledge a place in which they could showcase their knowledge. It was as if they were too invested in a model in which the information only flowed unidirectionally from teacher to student.
One of the promises of technology is the disruption of entrenched models. And education is no different. Students have a dizzying variety of options when it comes to their learning nowadays. And often learn faster than teachers can teach a class. New successful teachers in this environment must embrace and utilize these new paradigms.
So students can now learn faster than a teacher can teach and at their own pace. What role does a modern teacher have in this brave new world?
It has been my experience that teachers serve not only as knowledge holders but (and more importantly) as contextualizers of information. And as I eventually realized in my technology classes (filled with students who could learn the application on their own and faster than I could teach), the value I provided was an ethical one; I was modeling how to be a responsible cyber-citizen. How we treat one another and recognize and work with trolls, cyber-bullies, and inappropriate behavior was my greatest contribution to technology literacy.
:)
so yes, a new emerging model is predicated on listening and learning from one another across generation and it is for us to discover what is of value to teach.