@Miranda Yeoh, I want to try to interpret my previous answer a little bit more. I quoted a phrase of a well-known mathematician, academician Vladimir Arnold. The phrase "... I worked a lot in libraries, good, there are excellent books" was said by Vladimir Arnold's friend as an answer on Arnold's question: (I should quote this answer from the original text in Russian, because of I can not give my translation into English. But you can translate this phrase into Endlish using the link http://translate.google.com/ ) «... Я говорю о состоянии преподавания математики в школах США, и здесь ситуация плачевная. Я обсуждал эту проблему с выдающимися математиками Америки, многие из них - мои друзья, достижениями их я горжусь, но тем не менее я задавал им такой вопрос: «Как вам удалось при столь низком школьном образовании достичь столь высокого уровня в науке?». И один из них мне ответил так: «Дело в том, что я рано научился «двойному мышлению», то есть у меня было одно понимание предмета для себя, а другое - для начальства в школе. Мой учитель требовал, чтобы я ему отвечал, что дважды три - восемь, но сам-то я знал, что это шесть... Я твердо знал, что надо отвечать на уроках и что есть на самом деле... Я много занимался в библиотеках, благо, есть прекрасные книги». " In my view, this phrase contains a great sense. Now I have the right to give my interpretation. This example clearly shows that "to succeed in education, the children must be very motivated to use self-edication as many as possible. I think this is a very strong way to educate myself as self-made-man. In my opinion, education can be achived by using three factors: HIGH MOTIVATION, SELF-EDUCATION, MODERN TECHNOLOGIES TO EXTRACT KNOWLEDGE (from books, Internet, sound, ... ). One of examples of high motivation is the following: A well-known scientist, akademician Lev Pontryagin was completely blind since 16 years old. Nevertheless, he created his well-known optimal control theory together with the followers. This is a clear example of extracting mathematical knowledge from human sound.

Is this a higher education question - it seems to be from your tagging, but I get a different sense from the content of the site?

HI Jonathan, schools are the feeders for institutions of higher education. I am equally concerned about the activities going on in schools.

Dear Miranda Yeoh,

I want to try to answer to your question by quoting a phrase of academician Vladimir Arnold from a discussion on the link https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_the_degradation_scale_in_the_higher_education_worldwide

Please see this discussion and my answer in particular. In my view, a phrase "«... Я много занимался в библиотеках, благо, есть прекрасные книги» " (I worked a lot in libraries, good, there are excellent books) would could be one of the answers to your question "What are we, or should be doing day by day, at our job?"

As I said in your question about which education model to adopt, technology must add to a good teacher's repertoire or it serves little purpose. So I most agree with the article. However as has been discussed in other RG questions, IT also changes the focus of the teacher, in a way perhaps necessary for the 21 st C, so there are other dimensions to the question.

"Mark, please share the other dimensions. This is the best part of Research Gate, our friends help us, because they see things from various other angles :)

Quick response :- access to technology changes students' views about information & learning, SO if we do have access to technology and we want students to get a good education, then we need to reconsider what we are supposed to be teaching. Do we focus on content or the skills to use knowledge, or how to read & interpret information, or how to find it, or how to select good information from the rubbish, or how to rewrite the readily available material honestly & critically. I struggle with these questions daily with my middle school students. We have only had easy access to technology for a couple of years and I see it being 1. wasted & 2. misused. Currently I try to do everything mentioned above In my teaching because the students show a willingness to find any information I need them to, but have trouble using it critically & honestly in particular.

@Mark, yes it's difficult to develop critical thinking skills. Perhaps that's why there are so many responses to that Question posted on RG. I also find it hard to help my students in that direction. Even my good friends teaching in Universiti Malaya, the oldest and most prestigious university in this country complain that our students are only skillful at memorizing and regurgitating for exams.

It's the same too for the other challenge of using the info honestly, citing and re-phrasing and showing that the material has passed through their mental faculties, instead of plagiarizing. Some students even say that the original writing is ideal, nothing can be added nor subtracted. But I normally respond by saying it's only God's Word, the Bible that comes to that class.

@Gennady Fedulov, thanks for your comment. I read your comment yesterday evening, but my students kept me busy. After answering their questions, I joined them for a jog. We have a beautiful jogging track around our soccer field in this college.

Coming back to your response, I take it that teachers should continue to increase our knowledge day by day, making use of library facilities. Thanks :)

No Technology Shortcuts to Good Education is a truism. At lower schooling levels, an interested and passionate teacher is needed to mediate between each student and their educational needs. Only a (good) teacher can apply the high level of interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence needed to listen to a student's needs and guide them effectively. Technology can't replace that capacity. Personally I love technology in my teaching. It actually lets me put the responsibility for learning content (a la 'flipped teaching') onto the students so I can guide their development in how to use the content to solve problems, find solutions etc.

Good, we agree that technology cannot replace the Teacher. But technology is fulfilling an assisting role in our teaching, for most of us. Then, do you think that teachers who use technology to good effect will replace the teachers who refuse/ don't use technology? (Mark, Shelita, I'm just responding quickly, and this thought comes to mind :))

I am in the public system where most teachers are permanent and can't be dismissed easily. This is good and bad. There are some who won't use tech but not so many. Mostly the discussion in more advanced schools is how to use it effectivelt.

In some countries, teachers are protected like polar bears in the national park! No one can replace them , regardless of the quality of work they perform!!! Sad, oh yes!

@Miranda Yeoh, I want to try to interpret my previous answer a little bit more. I quoted a phrase of a well-known mathematician, academician Vladimir Arnold. The phrase "... I worked a lot in libraries, good, there are excellent books" was said by Vladimir Arnold's friend as an answer on Arnold's question: (I should quote this answer from the original text in Russian, because of I can not give my translation into English. But you can translate this phrase into Endlish using the link http://translate.google.com/ ) «... Я говорю о состоянии преподавания математики в школах США, и здесь ситуация плачевная. Я обсуждал эту проблему с выдающимися математиками Америки, многие из них - мои друзья, достижениями их я горжусь, но тем не менее я задавал им такой вопрос: «Как вам удалось при столь низком школьном образовании достичь столь высокого уровня в науке?». И один из них мне ответил так: «Дело в том, что я рано научился «двойному мышлению», то есть у меня было одно понимание предмета для себя, а другое - для начальства в школе. Мой учитель требовал, чтобы я ему отвечал, что дважды три - восемь, но сам-то я знал, что это шесть... Я твердо знал, что надо отвечать на уроках и что есть на самом деле... Я много занимался в библиотеках, благо, есть прекрасные книги». " In my view, this phrase contains a great sense. Now I have the right to give my interpretation. This example clearly shows that "to succeed in education, the children must be very motivated to use self-edication as many as possible. I think this is a very strong way to educate myself as self-made-man. In my opinion, education can be achived by using three factors: HIGH MOTIVATION, SELF-EDUCATION, MODERN TECHNOLOGIES TO EXTRACT KNOWLEDGE (from books, Internet, sound, ... ). One of examples of high motivation is the following: A well-known scientist, akademician Lev Pontryagin was completely blind since 16 years old. Nevertheless, he created his well-known optimal control theory together with the followers. This is a clear example of extracting mathematical knowledge from human sound.

@Shelita McCadney Brown

I would dismiss first all those administrators that waste public funds to provide "professional development" which is irrelevant to improve teachers' technology skills. Some time ago I attempted to publish a paper on how to teach the distributive property, including a "BASIC" program for the TI-84. One of my "peers" rejected the paper because the program was not basic! He did not realize that "BASIC" was the name of the programming language. President Obama is calling for young people to program their cellphones: I think the majority of our Math teachers do not know how to program their hand calculators! However we keep sending kids to home to have "professional development" where we are told, again and again, how to use graphic organizers, Ven Diagrams, similarities and differences, and the like. I am a Math teacher and, yes, I use technology: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ochavoya.timestable

@Gennady, thanks. Now I understand the point you make, with help from Mr Google Translator. Concerning the 3 factors that you state, what I observe is that in my country at least, high motivation (to succeed) and self-education characterize the past generation, far more than the present Y generation (example: my students). However, the Y-gen are more familiar with technology, but perhaps more for entertainment than education.

@Oscar, thanks. I like your apps :) Not all the Maths teachers are like you. Just go on doing all you can, with what is available!

@Ljubomir, I like your description of teachers as 'polar bears in the park' :)

In my country, when there is a complaint by students about a teacher, this matter is taken up by the school head/ principal and the Parent Teacher Association of the school. Teachers who have wronged their students are advised and some can be transferred away from their comfort zone, the present school. But at times, it does seem that nothing can be done to the ones who do not perform. When I was teaching in school, my head often said that 80% of the work is done by 20% of the teachers. Is this occurring in your country, and other countries, perhaps?

Teacher is the one who makes the complicated subject easier to students. Any method he uses matters a lot. No doubt technology will have better impact on students.

High motivation, self education and technology and good teaching are important to have effective learning occur.

The last point of good teaching to me involves more than just standing in front of a group of students. It is knowing the person, spending time discussing and setting goals and targets with them (Coaching) whether it be online or in a classroom. By having personal contact, the motivation and self learning will be enhanced.

Using ICT becomes important in that it is ideal for self education and information getting.

At our school, the 10, 11 and 12 year old students are encouraged to use the Ed Qld Distance Education lessons especially for mathematics. We have found that the media and activities available with these lessons enable our students to obtain full understanding of the concepts involved. They are able to do most activities by themselves at a high standard.

Because they are doing these lessons independently, or as a group, they have to work hard to gain an understanding of the concepts themselves instead of someone interpreting them. This involves more thinking and better life long learners. The class teacher still takes group lessons when needed.

I do feel that there is a need for a mentor, a coach etc. We have found that our students' results improved this year by incorporating the personal touch (Coaching, Mentoring).

@Stanley, thanks for your response. I see you are from the same place as Mark :)

There are teachers that refuse to use technology. A good reason for that is that teachers are not programmers (in general). They do not have the time to grow as proficient users of technology in a classroom environment, where problems have to be solved immediately. If only the numerous clerical activities the teachers have to perform by hand were automated using the same technology, more teachers will see the advantage of using computers for instruction. The problem is that teachers are asked to make decisions based on data and they are not given usable tools to collect, analyse, and make decisions using those data, or to use technology to support instruction. (User friendly web interfaces for data collection, data analysis, decision making, instructional design.) The number of students in the classroom is growing at the same pace as the number of forms that have to be filled to keep the politicians happy!

It's the same in my place. The problems facing teachers that you have described are the same. But we, teachers, have to learn to use technology. We can't afford to be behind our students, who are natives in the high tech age. When our students see us learning and improving, they appreciate it.

Let me put it this way. Recently I was taking an online class on Computer Science at MIT ( https://courses.edx.org/courses/MITx/6.00.1x/3T2013/info ) One Friday, I had to take the mid term. We were not teaching because it was raining and parts of the facility were flooded. I asked my supervisor permission to get online to take my mid term evaluation. His answer: "You cannot use these computers but for school business." He would rather have me doing nothing than my midterm test, on computer science! That's the kind of leadership we have in education, apparently, all over this planet. I cannot do any fundamental research because "it's not part of school business." Guess whose job is to clean the classroom after each period... It's actually my job if I want to be in a clean classroom!

Our students, on the other side, they believe they are natives in the high tech age, but they are not. I have not come across anyone of them that can explain to me what divide and conquer or dynamic programming is; what is a finite state automata, or a push down automata, or a Turing Machine, or a regular language, a context free language, or a recursively enumerable language. They are proficient end users, which is something, but that is not the same as being part of the tech age. As President Obama hast put it in a recent speech in the White House: "Do not just use your smart phone learn to program it!" Most of our teachers, and our students as a consequence, have no idea of what it takes to program a smart phone or a tablet. So, most of our students are just trapped in the high tech age consumerism, which, it appears to me, is just a new flavour of fascism. You know that I like computers, I have written my own applications to use in my classroom: to record classroom participation in real time, to drill my students on some repetitive tasks; to automatically generate problems for them to solve, to improve their writing, and other things. Still I consider more important giving them a future than using technology to teach them.

Oscar, Your response is all about being creators. We are obliged to give our students the skills to become creators not just consumers. I do not have the skills to do this but would dearly love our students to be given the chance to obtain them. Could you mention some sites for primary students that enable them to experience programming at their level?

@Oscar, I was teaching in school for many years. It has become a normal thing to sweep the classrooms and to bring home students who are not well. But that brought me close to my community. Besides, on special days (like Teachers' Day), students wash the car for me, till it's sparkling clean.

Yes, our students are proficient at using technology. I also see them using it for entertainment rather than for education. This leads to Stanley's question :)

@Stanley Eade

Sorry it took sometime for me to answer (Christmas and stuff).

A place to start would be: http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/ or http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/learning-programming-scratch or

http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/teaching-kids-programming

For the more advanced students, that want to program at a "hardware" level, there is http://www.parallax.com/

@Miranda

I am not sure we are talking about the same sort of "cleaning" but, anyway, if we are busy sweeping the classroom---which I don't mind in and of itself---do not expect us to keep our grade-books in order; write lesson plans; prepare the lessons; do the actual teaching; enforce discipline when necessary; and then improve our academic skills. We are just human beings, which means, we are also people: with families, dogs, cats, dreams, and nightmares.

Thanks Oscar. I'm sure you are doing the best in your circumstances. I will get into the links as soon as I can.

Thanks Oscar, a Great Christmas present.

Learning and education in broad perspective ia a lifelong, never ending process, which must be seen to include almost all aspects of life. As we send our children to school, we suppose that they learn tge curriculum to be used for the rest of their lives. As life has many facets, and will lead the child down still unknown paths, the school must prepare the child well.