Monday, September 7, 2015

Information Technology and Superstar teachers



Very interesting article on teachers selling their material online and becoming millionaires. Another example of how software is eating the world and how more and more sectors of the economy are affected.
"By selling tens of thousands of items, he says, 12 teachers on the site have become millionaires and nearly 300 teachers have earned more than $100,000. On any given day, the site has about 1.7 million lesson plans, quizzes, work sheets, classroom activities and other items available, typically for less than $5. Last month alone, Mr. Freed added, more than one million teachers in the United States downloaded material, including free and fee-based products, from the site"

2 comments:

  1. MOOCs and e-learning platforms have been the greatest disruption in the edtech market in the last 5 years. Traditionally, education has been a very local market. Internet has turned this market into a global one and teachers are taking advantage of new opportunities to monetize their knowledge.

    However, there are other emerging technologies such as adaptive learning or artificial intelligence that are going to change the role of the educator. E.g. Duolingo and it's adaptive learning edu. method is a perfect substitute (sometimes even a better option) of a language tutor for most of the work.

    Therefore, teachers have the big challenge of reinventing themselves and partnering with technology to improve education. In this sense, they should focus on the activities that technology can't replicate. Unfortunately, we are far away from there. Yet.

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  2. Another interesting question based on the previous discussion: the relationship between humans and technology in education over time. 'BECAUSE of the increased efficiency of machines, it is getting harder and harder for a human to make a productive contribution to society' https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-09-15-is-education-technology-losing-its-humanity

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