Why teachers will always be needed, even in the Google Bing generation

This article in today’s Independent perfectly sums up why teachers (substitute with the term that you prefer) will always be needed. The chief of Google expresses his concerns about privacy in the online age.

One reason is expressed in the article (I have added the emphasis):

"I think we need to change people's mindsets through education rather than legislation but it's definitely something that we need to talk to our children about,"

Also, as quoted in Ian Gilbert’s book ‘Why do I need a teacher when I’ve got Google’ the 63336 answer:

'”Teachers express things in a way Google can’t. They make dull subjects seem interesting, whereas Google just supplied the facts, not all of them correct”

The content available through Google and Bing’s selected search results need interpreting. How would you deal with this, for example?

In order to help young people stay clear of privacy issues, we also need to get away from the blunt ‘ban/block it’ attitude of some Local Authorities and schools. We need to model how social media can be used to our young people, and make them aware of the potential impact on their future lives.

After all, when short listing candidates for a job a few years back, I played the ‘Match-the-cv-to-their-facebook-profile’ game and used the results as one tool in making the shortlist.

This is especially important as young people should have an online presence in the future in able to be visible and apply for globalised jobs. One method that we could do this is by having e-portfolios for every pupil that are visible to all from the start?

Comments

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David Rogers

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