Video: Next wave mobility and the three ages of information.

Education, as other fields of our daily lives has also been strongly affected by the development of new technologies. Long ago, the only way to transmit information was by writing, but before the invention of the printing press, only few people had access to books and information. Teachers back then were guides and mentors, and students learned by practice and repetition. After the invention of the printing press, books became available to more people, but finding information became the most important problem of this age, new technologies were developed to solve this problem, and though it was more accessible, it took a lot of time and energy to access the information. In this age, teachers were the primary providers of information, and students were only receivers. Learning was only a process that involved repetition, accuracy and memorization.  Learning back then was a standardized process, because books were standardized, but reading and learning became accessible to almost everyone, but the time it took to access to information, was the motor that influenced the development of new technologies to solve this problem.

In this current age, as new technologies and tools are constantly created, accessibility is no longer an issue. With the development of internet, information is only one click of a button away.  The amount of information that one can receive is overwhelming, and growing constantly in a geometric way, the challenge today is to learn how much of this information is real and trustable. Assessing information is the new problem that we are facing in this era. Today, teachers are confronting new challenges. Our basic responsibility of transmitting information to students, is not needed anymore. On the other hand, our role in the classroom has also changed. As we prepare to meet the needs of the 21^st century, I believe that the role of teachers is even more important now. We need to think out of the box, leave our comfort zone and use our wisdom and experience to face the current challenges we are facing today. Teachers also need to develop better communication skills to establish good relationships with students and colleagues around the world, focus on becoming a guide and a mentor to students, by helping them not only assess the information they can collect, but also by helping them apply and use this information correctly to solve real world situations. We need to be flexible and focus on a more contextual teaching, so students can feel motivated and engaged by feeling that the information obtained is useful and meaningful, which facilitates the connection with real world problems. One of the most important challenges that we teachers face today, is the need to help students become independent, respectful and responsible global learners.

Technology has also change the way classrooms are designed. Today we need interactive classrooms where students and teachers can connect with the outside world, a space where students can feel comfortable socializing and working alone or in groups facilitating creation, discussions, analysis and reflection.