Can teachers be replaced by technology in the future?

I believe this is possible for teachers to be replaced in the future because technology is so advanced and we are seeing further advances every day in artificial intelligence, over the past twenty years technology has started to replace: check-out cashiers, factory workers, furniture manufacturers, bridge toll collectors, railway station ticket seller along with many more vocations. It is difficult to think of jobs that are not in jeopardy of being replaced by technology and robots in the future, so what’s to say the same would not happen to teachers?

So many people today are reliant on technology and the media and this is also the case in schools especially in secondary schools and universities. So many resources and tasks are now posted online the amount of time spent in a school environment is declining. All the work done by teachers could be posted online for students to study at home. 

However, teachers will always be needed to manage the classroom environment and to give students the encouragement they need. Part of education for children is teaching them social-emotional skills. Students may be digital wizzes, but they still need help in locating and using digital resources in the correct way for learning. Teachers are there for support and help and can assess and track children’s development from seeing them on a daily basis.

The role of education technology is continuously expanding from projectors to smart boards and enabling the better interaction between teachers and students in the classroom, Fedena, 2019.  Teachers do more than just the one-way task of instructing a student. They help identify problems for students that might be more personal or emotional in nature, that a machine cannot pick up on. They help put lessons into context, which might not be possible for a piece of technology to do. Technology can be built to aid teachers, but not replace them.

References:

Fendena (2019) Teachers vs Technology. Online at:  https://fedena.com/blog/2018/05/teachers-vs-technology-can-technology-replace-teachers.html [Accessed 2/4/19]