Guest Commentary: Redefine Teachers as Learning Designers

Paul Bogdan was an old-fashioned lecturing, teacher-centered, secondary math teacher who left teaching for 14 years to build computer systems. He has come back and is reborn as a student-centered teacher trying to make a difference and trying to figure out what works in today’s classroom. In a post on the Edutopia blog, Bogdan described why he, and others, need to change their classroom strategies. "Education in our middle schools and high schools these days is rapidly changing. The old notion of a classroom where the students are sitting quietly and neatly in their seats, while the teacher is up front pouring pearls of wisdom and knowledge into their brains is absurd," he writes. "Reality in the 21st century is quite a different story. Students seem to know that once a teacher stands up in front of the room and starts 'teaching,' not only is their life going to get very boring very quickly, the end result will be that there will be more quizzes and tests to fail and more opportunities to end up feeling dumber and dumber. So, how do they cope? They text their friends or get some sleep, or interrupt the teacher with a myriad of cleverly constructed distractions. The teacher who intends to stand in front of a high school or middle school class and 'teach' is in a constant battle. "Are teachers obsolete?" he continues. "Absolutely not. But, an educator's role is changing from the traditional 'imparter of knowledge' to that of coach and consultant. There are many exciting examples of successful strategies and programs in which the students are not only allowed, but encouraged and required, to take responsibility for much more of their learning than ever before." Click here to read more of Bogdan post which included links to essays on include digital teaching methods as part of the 21st century learning environment.