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Are teachers less influential nowadays? Someone might say yes. In the past, almost all of the students were directly instructed by their teachers, while the traditional role teachers used to play seems to be challenged by some newly-emerged ways of education as the technological developments have a profound impact on our life. Hence, some people infer that teachers are becoming less influential today.
Admittedly, technological advances do provide a wider range of choices and a greater deal of resources, but teachers’ role won’t be affected consequently. The Internet has its limitations. When meeting with a perplexing problem, students can always turn to their teachers, yet the confusion will not be relieved if they are simply lingering in the digital world. Moreover, what they can obtain from class is not only the knowledge, but also the experience of exchanging their ideas with teachers as well as searching for the truth through discussions, which also can never be realized via the Internet.
Furthermore, despite the convenience it may bring, the abundance of such free learning resources poses a serious problem to students – the resources are excessive for them to handle. Without appropriate guidance, students can be easily preoccupied with all these available information and become completely bewildered. Compared to the past, the contemporary world is permeated with much more redundant information. Therefore, by making judgments and offering suggestions, teachers could be even more influential than before.
From my perspective, instead of viewing the information age as a threat to the traditional mode of teaching, I prefer to consider it as an aid in improving the quality of education. Science facilitates learning rather than provokes conflicts. No matter how the society changes, teachers will play an enduringly crucial role in students’ life. Utilizing the modern technology and conceptualizing where they belong to, teachers are irreplaceable.
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