To help today's students prepare for tomorrow's technology, it's essential to keep the human element of teaching alive

To create adaptable students with transferable skills, it's important to remember that technology alone is not enough to create an excellent learning environment. Teachers remain an essential training component, no matter how far technology advances.

Technological changes

It's true that technological skills are not just sought after but expected, but stop and think about how quickly technology changes. Remember the giant mobile phones people had in the '80s? How many of those phone-owners realised that one day soon they would be replaced by mini computers that could not only take calls, but carry out hundreds of other tasks too?

While it's important that students learn how to get to grips with today's technology, it would be dangerous to assume that was the be all and end all. That thought process could result in a whole generation of students who are highly skilled in operating a technology that quickly becomes obsolete.

Relevant learning

To help today's students prepare for tomorrow's technology, it's essential to keep the human element of teaching alive. It isn't enough to teach people how to use the enhanced learning aids at their fingertips; focus should be on the knowledge these aids can unleash. A textbook and a tablet computer may present exactly the same information, but the crucial difference is found in the way a student connects with it.

A good learning environment also relies on plenty of teacher-student interactions, which helps raise enthusiasm and further understanding. For students to really make the most of the technology at hand, a good teacher should also be pushing them to see how they can adapt it to their own needs and investigate how to harness its power creatively.

With a focus on learning for the future, TAFE NSW has a wide range of courses to help today's students get ahead.