I’ve been teaching English for the last 12 years but despite the relatively long experience, I still get excited every time I enter a classroom. For instance, when I gave my class a project to do one summer in which they had to modernise a Shakespeare tragedy, I was astounded by the ingenuity of some of the entries. When I asked one of my spunky 14-year-olds how she came about casting Hamlet as a Sumo wrestler turned Rapper, she replied: “I posted on my wall, and someone in Japan replied!”

In fact, my student had well over 1,000 contacts on her Facebook, people from countries that you’d take a minute to spell right. She’s sharing and learning and collaborating in ways that were unheard of just a few years ago.

Welcome to the Age of Collaboration, where even a four-year-old uses the web deftly finding Ben 10 Aliens to battle! Undoubtedly, our tech-savvy student population is locking into some of the most transformative connecting technologies the world has ever seen.

But are schools and educators ready to face the challenge of teaching a class that has the ability to learn whatever it wants, whenever it wants, from whomever it wants, thus perhaps rendering the content-based teacher-guided curriculum near obsolete?

The Collaboration Age is about learning beyond the four walls of a classroom. It’s about a collaborative effort to create and share with “others,” people whom we don’t know and probably never will, but who share similar pursuits and passions. It’s about networking, harbouring effective communities to explore and creating new knowledge gained together.

The connector

Inherent to this process is the new-age teacher who is not the oracle receptor of all knowledge, but whose role now is that of a connector. As connectors, our duty is to enhance students’ ability to learn from interactive tools like Wiki, Skype, and Blogs. Learning now is not merely content based, but also about acquiring the skills to use new tools like social-networking. It’s about teaching global collaboration and communication, thus allowing students to create their own networks in the bargain.

With the flood of information out there for the picking, a teacher’s job is to sift through and find the most relevant links for students to evaluate and create their very own highly personalised learning environment.

The educator now takes a back seat as we open doors to the outside world early on enabling students to work collaboratively online for a common goal.

The Age of Collaboration, however, has its pitfalls. The worries and concerns of free-flowing access to the web are scary. So how does one learn to differentiate the predators from the partners? That’s still a sticking point for educators.

Blocking technologies in the classroom doesn’t mean we can police them in their bedrooms. Students continue to explore the pitfalls on their own and are growing large networks without us. Uploading their own masterpiece on Youtube or sharing a review of a new App is nothing strange for today’s student.

Attitudes

I believe a collaborative metamorphosis will occur when teachers gradually release their control, and classrooms become not only communities, but exciting places to spend the day. However, teachers need models to move away from that ‘sage on the stage’ tradition - solid examples of students deeply engaged in exciting, meaningful, real conversations in which the teacher is not calling the shots. Additionally, training series for parents/teachers that focuses on helping their children/teens stay safe online, and partnering with kids in using online social networking sites is the need of the hour. Schools also need to provide support and resources to move the instructional revolution from talk to action by setting up a small group of committed individuals working together to become comfortable with new technologies and new practices; a peer-coaching model is the only way to nurture the change necessary for classrooms, principals, and school boards. A real network of teachers and educational enthusiasts needs to be designed to help participants battle the biggest hurdle between educators and technology: fear.

When I now go into a classroom, I carry not only my lesson plan, but also an ever-growing awareness that my 30 students will present me with strikingly new challenges garnered from every corner of the globe; they will have, in most scenarios, knowledge, that is new to me. The survival tactic I employ is to accept the humble notion that a teacher need not have all the answers all the time, and of course there is the infallible safety net – Google.

In our ardent desire to save our children from the horrors out there and to adhere stringently to the tried and tested primitive content-learning methods, we are in fact failing to prepare students for the real world while missing out on a great learning opportunity ourselves.

The time has come for educators to embrace these new technologies and their potential to revolutionise teaching and learning, to break down walls and create a safe and ethical space for students to create, share, and grow.

(Neena N. Admas is teacher of English, at Modern High School, Dubai).