<p>What should we, as teachers, strive to teach in our lectures? In this age of advancements in Information Technology and generative AI, every teacher must be grappling with this question in some form or another.</p>.<p>In earlier days, if you had the content of the topic in your command and you were reasonably good at explaining it, you had a good chance of passing off as a good teacher. Not anymore.</p>.Russia witnesses growing interest in Hindi, government increases number of institutions teaching language.<p>Students these days have access to an abundance of superlative content through online lectures. As far as the quality of content is concerned, it's not easy to match that of these online courses. Whether most students do indeed diligently absorb that online content is an open question. However, when an average student is deciding whether or not to take an interest in your lecture (often with a bias towards a 'no'), they will most likely compare your content and delivery with those of the best on the Internet. And in such an unfair game, most of us stand little chance.</p>.<p>So, if content is almost impossible to catch the student’s attention and interest with, what value can ordinary teachers like us bring to the table? A somewhat blunt variant of the question: What stopped us, human teachers, from becoming irrelevant in the face of Internet and AI content?</p>.<p>Three things set a human teacher apart from anything that technological advancement can offer as of today:</p>.<p><strong>Guidance and mentorship</strong></p>.<p>Students today are very smart and resourceful. Any goal is not too hard to achieve, no destination too distant to reach, for them. However, in this era of information overload, there's a lot of confusion as to what to aim for and where to go. Add to this the natural lack of experience and self-awareness of their age, and the general noisiness of the atmosphere that's constantly trying to dazzle you, numb your judgement, and entice you toward wrong ideals, wrong role models. In such a situation, a guide (who helps in various decisions, not just on academic or professional matters but about matters of general life) is of great value.</p>.<p><strong>Awaken interest and excitement</strong></p>.<p>The only way to awaken excitement about anything is to display it in yourself. Being excited about a subject is often harder than being an expert in it. There are many experts in a field who are not able to communicate their knowledge to others. Excitement doesn't lie in immaculate and rigorous exposition of a topic, but in evoking excitement, suspense, surprise and other human emotions associated with storytelling about an otherwise dry topic. Where applicable, relation to real life and significance also helps. Creating continuity between topics already learned also contributes positively to the interest. Personal anecdotes add a touch of credibility to the narrative.</p>.<p><strong>Personalisation</strong></p>.<p>A teacher who's keenly aware of the specific characteristics of their students is in a far better position to personalise the teaching. This may consider the students' current level of knowledge, intelligence, intellectual capacity and inclination, other interests and ambitions. In a very close teacher-learner relation (e.g. between a PhD scholar and her advisor), even details about personal nature, health (both physical and mental as well), personal situation (e.g. family and economic), etc., can also be very much considered. Even when the cohort is large and such a high degree of personalisation may become infeasible, even then, insights about the general characteristics of the class can be used effectively to generate a personalised experience.</p>.<p>For example, when teaching a large class, I try to keep track of what other courses those students have already done or are currently doing in that semester. Creating connections between my course and those other ones also has subtle positive effects. It demonstrates how various subjects don't exist in isolation but are deeply connected. It is convincing evidence that the teacher is interested and aware of the learning journey of his students over and beyond the boundaries of his own subject. This personalisation is a very human thing, extremely hard to replicate by even the most state-of-the-art AI agent today.</p>.<p>When a teacher who acts as a good mentor to his students; ensures to keep stoking their curiosity and excitement about learning continually through a variety of storytelling methods and develops a personal 'human' connection with his students and uses the same to personalise the teaching/learning method, the students would be far more prepared and capable to take the journey of learning, along with its hardships and perils alike, all by themselves. Such a teacher is guaranteed to stay relevant in the learning story of today's students.</p>.<p><em>(The author is an associate professor at a Bengaluru-based technology institute)</em></p>
<p>What should we, as teachers, strive to teach in our lectures? In this age of advancements in Information Technology and generative AI, every teacher must be grappling with this question in some form or another.</p>.<p>In earlier days, if you had the content of the topic in your command and you were reasonably good at explaining it, you had a good chance of passing off as a good teacher. Not anymore.</p>.Russia witnesses growing interest in Hindi, government increases number of institutions teaching language.<p>Students these days have access to an abundance of superlative content through online lectures. As far as the quality of content is concerned, it's not easy to match that of these online courses. Whether most students do indeed diligently absorb that online content is an open question. However, when an average student is deciding whether or not to take an interest in your lecture (often with a bias towards a 'no'), they will most likely compare your content and delivery with those of the best on the Internet. And in such an unfair game, most of us stand little chance.</p>.<p>So, if content is almost impossible to catch the student’s attention and interest with, what value can ordinary teachers like us bring to the table? A somewhat blunt variant of the question: What stopped us, human teachers, from becoming irrelevant in the face of Internet and AI content?</p>.<p>Three things set a human teacher apart from anything that technological advancement can offer as of today:</p>.<p><strong>Guidance and mentorship</strong></p>.<p>Students today are very smart and resourceful. Any goal is not too hard to achieve, no destination too distant to reach, for them. However, in this era of information overload, there's a lot of confusion as to what to aim for and where to go. Add to this the natural lack of experience and self-awareness of their age, and the general noisiness of the atmosphere that's constantly trying to dazzle you, numb your judgement, and entice you toward wrong ideals, wrong role models. In such a situation, a guide (who helps in various decisions, not just on academic or professional matters but about matters of general life) is of great value.</p>.<p><strong>Awaken interest and excitement</strong></p>.<p>The only way to awaken excitement about anything is to display it in yourself. Being excited about a subject is often harder than being an expert in it. There are many experts in a field who are not able to communicate their knowledge to others. Excitement doesn't lie in immaculate and rigorous exposition of a topic, but in evoking excitement, suspense, surprise and other human emotions associated with storytelling about an otherwise dry topic. Where applicable, relation to real life and significance also helps. Creating continuity between topics already learned also contributes positively to the interest. Personal anecdotes add a touch of credibility to the narrative.</p>.<p><strong>Personalisation</strong></p>.<p>A teacher who's keenly aware of the specific characteristics of their students is in a far better position to personalise the teaching. This may consider the students' current level of knowledge, intelligence, intellectual capacity and inclination, other interests and ambitions. In a very close teacher-learner relation (e.g. between a PhD scholar and her advisor), even details about personal nature, health (both physical and mental as well), personal situation (e.g. family and economic), etc., can also be very much considered. Even when the cohort is large and such a high degree of personalisation may become infeasible, even then, insights about the general characteristics of the class can be used effectively to generate a personalised experience.</p>.<p>For example, when teaching a large class, I try to keep track of what other courses those students have already done or are currently doing in that semester. Creating connections between my course and those other ones also has subtle positive effects. It demonstrates how various subjects don't exist in isolation but are deeply connected. It is convincing evidence that the teacher is interested and aware of the learning journey of his students over and beyond the boundaries of his own subject. This personalisation is a very human thing, extremely hard to replicate by even the most state-of-the-art AI agent today.</p>.<p>When a teacher who acts as a good mentor to his students; ensures to keep stoking their curiosity and excitement about learning continually through a variety of storytelling methods and develops a personal 'human' connection with his students and uses the same to personalise the teaching/learning method, the students would be far more prepared and capable to take the journey of learning, along with its hardships and perils alike, all by themselves. Such a teacher is guaranteed to stay relevant in the learning story of today's students.</p>.<p><em>(The author is an associate professor at a Bengaluru-based technology institute)</em></p>