Teachers` Evolving Responsbilities

The role of technology today has expanded the learning environments beyond classrooms, which has resulted in more responsibilities for the teachers and more independence to the learners, but with consequences.

Not only do the teachers have to master their subjects but also they need to be updating their knowledge every second as the contemporary means of communication and sources of knowledge multiply day by day. Isn`t that wonderful? Perhaps, yes. However, these resources may leave students either misguided or confused. Hence, to the responsibilities of teachers` subject discipline, methodology and psychology is added constant tracking/awareness of the available resources to the learners.

Moreover, access to any kind of information at your finger tip creates an extremely subtle line between inquisitiveness and trust. It is harder to distinguish which sources tell you the truth nowadays. There are countless blogs, websites, and teaching resources available online and it is almost inevitable not to see both learners and teachers getting unquestionably influenced by any of them. Therefore, it becomes teachers` duty to be in charge and guide the learners to the right resources with a right attitude.

Still, teachers cannot be in their students` shoes constantly. They cannot control every step they take, every impact they are exposed to or simply tell them what to do. Particularly nowadays, learner independence is both necessary for personal development and inescapable in this information age. That`s why teachers` skills and knowledge may be more easily questioned. This could be considered beneficial, but only to some extent.

Consequently, the teacher-student relationship both has evolved considerably and paved the way for further roles for teachers leaving learners more vulnerable to random learning materials. Though on the bright side, with the new developments it is even more realizable to create student-oriented, progressive, innovative and unconventional learning environments.