When I was in my tertiary education, I was taught about developments in teaching profession particularly the ever developing process of education. In those years, in my school, visual aids consisted merely of large sheets of paper on which we wrote the key concepts that we discuss in class or draw our illustrations for better class facility. These visual aids were posted on the board, if not on the walls, for every student to see or make reference to.
In those times, I remember that one of the considerations that was holding me back was the fact that I was inherently deprived of artistic skill. I cannot draw a straight line, sometimes even with the help of a ruler. This is supported by the quality of my penmanship, which it seems only my eyes can decipher. This made the idea of visual aids off-putting me. I was telling myself - to save myself from being disheartened completely - that education's core value is substance not form. That is, what matters inside the classroom was that the teacher knew the lesson very well. Of course, to my mind, I was admitting that should I be able to artistically produce visual aids it would have been better.
Off from the school and into the field, the lesson that we had started assumed its practical significance. I started to lose justification to rationalize. For it dawned on me that teaching is about substance (what to teach) and form (how to teach). And to overemphasize one is always at the detriment of the entire education process - hence, subsequently defeating even the overly-stressed aspect of it.
Now, visual aids are not hard to produce. Thanks to information technology! There are different kinds of computer software that very easily lend themselves to making teaching aids. And they are even more effective, for they are capable of engaging the educands' multiple sense organs. A PowerPoint presentation, for example, can likewise carry an audio. Too, it is capable of carrying a movie - which, with its moving pictures, catches the attention of the students and prolongs their span of concentration and interest. Hence, they become more engrossed. And the education becomes more effectual.
Considering the pacing of technological progress, the prospect of education becomes all the more exciting. Soon, the main stream of education sector will accept virtual classroom where education is facilitated while the students are not in the school but only connected through the Internet - many of them simultaneously - as they are taught by their online teacher. In this prospect, the walls of the classroom literally collapse.
Soon, too, learning would be totally paper-less. Assignments, quizzes and even major examinations are done electronically. Books are in e-form. Circulation of notes becomes more efficient. And discussions over topic of the class do not stop when class is dismissed, because an e-discussion-board (e.g., blogs) is established for the class.
And this is all the more an exciting prospect for the teacher! Since, with the development of pedagogical science and art, the personal development of the teacher likewise becomes limitless. Educational strategies are changing - so the teacher must adopt.
