Education is the process of passing on not only information and skills, but more importantly a passion for learning. All people of all ages and life circumstances are students. All people must constantly take in information and apply it. In some cases these people are instructed through texts or technical literature, by means of interaction with other individuals in their social environment, or in the case of schools, by interaction with professional instructors. In any case, a process of information transfer exists; skills and information pass from one to another.
There exists a significant difference between an instructor and a great teacher: passion. A great teacher has a passion for learning and a passion for people. I want to be a great teacher. I have a passion for the instructional areas in which I teach and train and I have a passion for people. I desire to see others succeed and to develop the same passion for learning that I have. To this end, relationships are of paramount importance. I must learn who my students are: what they care about, what they worry about, what they are passionate about, and what motivates them. I believe that any capability that I have to be a great teacher comes as a gift from God and it is from God that my passion and concern for people comes. As my calling to teach comes from God, I am also bound to teach from a specific perspective: that which I teach must be the truth and must be presented in a manner which presents boundaries to the learners. I must instruct in a manner which develops for the learners the same boundaries of moral and ethical correctness that I adhere to. Thus, when students fully become learners, they should have developed not only my passion for learning in general but also a compass for seeking out valuable and appropriate information and for its use whether that is to pass on or use in their own lives.
Because the process of education is to develop learners, thus passing on the passion of the teacher to others, the teacher role is critical to the process. However, as time passes the role of the learner becomes more important. As young students, people will ultimately decide whether to take on the mantle of learner. As students become learners, they also become responsible for their role in the education process. A learner must actively and conscientiously engage in the process of education. He or she must develop the ability to critically examine the information which they are presented with and responsibly apply and pass on that information which is viable and discard and even decry that which is contrary to their beliefs. This burden that is placed on the learner means that the teacher must teach from a realistic perspective. Certainly creativity is a goal that all teachers should have for their student-learners, but that creativity on the part of the learner must be tempered by grounded and reliable structure. To set learners free to believe that any creative or free thought has value and meaning is to leave students afloat and vulnerable to any direction that life or experience may influence them. It is the learners who must maintain his/her course for it will fall to them to become the teachers of the next generation.
If the main components in education are the teacher, the learner, and the information/skills being initially transmitted, then educational technology is the medium through which those components mesh. Just as it is important that the teacher disseminate valuable information, it is just as important that educational technology be highly scrutinized before being used in the education process. Educational technology is a tool for enhancing the process of education and just as an artist must use the correct implements for producing a masterpiece, lest he damage the raw materials with which he is working, so must educational technology be selected with care. Educational technology must not mask the teacher or the learning from the learner. Technology must be implemented so as to add clarity to communications, information, and skills but must not become a goal it and of itself. As a teacher, my goal is to use technology to provide real, genuine experiences for my students so that the concepts and information being taught take on concrete meaning and value for them. The limitation is that I never want to use technology to replace human interaction. Learners must have modeled for them the value of interpersonal relationships so that they develop an understanding of the importance of such interactions in learning and life so that they may practice and eventual model the same.
So we have examples of students and instruction mediums and of a process of taking in information and using it. This is not education. In education, instructors become teachers; those who have a passion for learning and for people. Information and skills become valuable commodities as they must be filtered and value judged so as to present only that which is true, factual and socially appropriate and relevant. Students become learners; those who have developed a passion for learning and who apply learning as responsible members of society. The purpose of education is to bring together teacher-learners together with students for the purpose of developing student-learners in an environment which espouses socially and morally acceptable application of information and skills.
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