Tech and teaching in the post-pandemic era 

As tech and AI programs infiltrate systems of learning, educators struggle to acclimate to ever-changing standards of academic integrity and interpersonal connection. 

Through a roundtable discussion hosting professors and instructors from universities globally, a conversation arises addressing how simply acknowledging the imminent nature of tech in education is insufficient.  

Given that as educators, teachers must function as hosts of multiple skills aside from traditional instruction, moving to a heavily online system of learning exacerbates the unaccounted for efforts of teachers in their practice. 

This includes existing as the facilitators of online classrooms, often multitasking beyond what is expected of teachers in a relatively new class setting. Additionally, educators serve as innovators tasked with observing the effectiveness of a new and radical approach to education, tasks which — more often than not — demand skills more common in social work. 

Then, when an educator is presented with an in-person instruction model years after the pandemic, how do they grapple with receiving a class of students with significantly reduced social capabilities due to long-term isolation during COVID-19? 

Amy Below, teacher of international relations at California State University, East Bay, highlights the evolving functionality of working effectively with different people for a student’s career, stating “Someone can have a very vibrant career sitting on a computer, is this a career to prepare them for? You can work remotely your entire life.” 

Still, Below pushes for the fostering of group work and social skills, proposing teachers must be aware of the changing of industries with tech tools to best prepare their students, though how exactly to prepare a class seems ever-changing and challenging in nature.  

At the university level, some schools have been more receptive than others in dealing with new AI technology. 

Completing her third year teaching online, Mary Jane Parmentier, clinical associate professor in the School for the Future of Innovation and Society at Arizona State University speaks of the accessibility and infrastructure established at ASU to adapt to AI.  

At ASU, teachers are encouraged to take courses to learn about their tech, embracing a teacher’s responsibility to learn the basics of generative AI so they can implement it in their classrooms. The university has also hired an AI strategist (ASU Enterprise Technology) to work on how to incorporate AI into teaching.  

Parmentier mentions, “As professors we have a responsibility to understand AI enough to help guide our students.” Currently, ASU has 66,000 students online.  

Other educators draw attention to the imbalance AI and technology place in a classroom environment, as they require a mix of all sorts of teaching styles.  

Douglas Becker, Associate Professor of Political Science, International Relations, and Environmental Studies at the University of Southern California states the immense vulnerability in teaching currently, as expectations of instruction are vastly different. “The problem is the way in which technology disempowers workers, as faculty they are potentially disempowered,” Becker said. 

Students hold professors to new expectations of teaching, calling for online based classes and conveniently recorded lectures. Generally, this calls for a revamping of syllabi and changing the goals of professors in presenting material.  

Becker claims that the looming concern within education is that in a way these tools too harshly alter the experience of teaching. Likewise, they are presenting individual educators with their many pitfalls. The focus remains on each teacher and how and when they will be served more effectively and adequately in new tech.  

The roundtable expressed openness as a tool most effective in response to changing instruction. While embracing a new era of education and tech, teachers must not stray too far from upholding priorities of human connection. Ultimately, teachers must seek opportunities to work with, not around the post-pandemic world. 

Editor’s Note: As of Friday, Feb. 16, 2024, this article has been updated to correct the spelling of a name.