Teaching into the future! Are you ready?


Imagine this scenario:
The year is 2008 exactly where we are now and through some planning Allah allows two professionals from 1808 to visit the world in their respective professional fields. The one is a doctor and the other a teacher. The doctor walks around and finds the clinic and begins to see if he can help when a patient is wheeled into theatre with severe pains in the chest. Immediately he is at a loss when he sees the huge operating theatre, the lights, the cameras, the heart rate monitors and everything else. Frightened and confused he looks for a way out. He walks out like a thief from a dark house because he feels like a fish out of water. He presses his time button and immediately he goes back to where he came from.
Then the teacher comes on the scene. The teacher walks around and he looks for the first school, madressah, vernacular class, lecture hall and he finds one school. Ahha! He looks inside and he sees the blackboard now green in colour, he sees the chalk, the pupils behind the desk, the ruler and pens etc. He walks in and takes over the lesson and feels so much at home. The 21st century teacher who sees all this and says to 18th century man: “Excuse me, but who do you think you are, coming into my class and taking over my math lesson?” He turns around and says, “Good morning dear madam, I am from the past, perhaps you should go there – we do things very much the same.” Saying that, he gives her his time button, makes her press it, and sends her back to the future!

Get it, the future of education in the 18th century meant a great development from what they already knew and practiced then therefore, we need to see how well we have progressed from then to now – 2008. But, take a critical look at how we teach today – in general sense we have not moved the centre. Believe it or not! You have been doing what you always do in the classroom for the past decade or decades and, some of us have become so outmoded in our practice of teaching that we sound like old records even though ipods are the in thing.

So where to from here!
Sally Tweedle etal in English for Tomorrow says: NEW TECHNOLOGIES WILL NOT INVALDIATE EXISTING REASONS FOR LEARNIG TO READ AND WRITE, is very valid when you look at the big picture of education. Children and adults need to know how to read and therefore, they need to be taught but, they need to be taught in relation to their world experience. No one denies the fact that you have to teach the holy Quran in its proper way however, what stops you from using technology in teaching the holy Quran. Let’s face it, the holy Quran in the Surah Iqra, Allah expounds the first lesson on embryology and yet, we shy away from technology.

The issue at hand is how you use technology in your teaching in an innovative way without innovating the deen is what we have to look at. Answer these questions:
1. If I use the computer that is plugged to a data projector in a class where the boys and girls are separated by a curtain or otherwise going to interfere in the lesson?
2. If you got all your pupils to create their own blogspots that illustrated the magnanimity of Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w) in light of all the horrendous slander against him (s.a.w). Would you be innovating the deen? **Do you know what blogging is? Well, please find out – “Ask those in authority, those who know if you do not know” – teaching from the holy Quran.
3. If use the same setting above (no.1) and on the screen you show pictures of the site of the battle of Badr, Uhud and Khandaq, a map of old Arabia and the new. You then connect to the internet and do a Google search for weapons of the Islamic peoples. The search is complete and then you ask the pupils to please use their computers at home i.e. if they have not brought in to class, to type out an essay on Muslim inventions and they should post it on the webpage’s call for comment. Do you innovate on the deen? Or have you innovated your teaching?

What if I told you the above was accomplished in a different lesson would you believe me?
It was done in a poetry lesson – we searched the web for the Preludes by Eliot, heard a recitation of the poem off the web, got analysis and then posted our comments of the poem and compared it to people from across the world. Cross posting went on for the year by pupils on various poems.
Now with the entire Islam phobia shouldn’t we be dispelling the myth people have of Islam?
Do you know that the world looks at us as a people who are bereft of technological progress and party only to war and terrorism? We know this is utter falsehood because we Muslims gave the world the ZERO but today, we are giving ZERO to the world – debatable but largely true.

The call therefore is to embrace technology in the classroom in many creative ways. You do not have to be a genius but, you have to be ingenious in the way you think so that you move into a frame of mind where petty issues don’t become dominant. You need to take up the challenge to learn that you will always have to learn to remain on top of things. Therefore, begin by reading books, journals and the likes that pertain to your subject of expertise and this would immediately make you know how little you know of what you think you know. The pro-action from this would make you study more and embrace the quality of a scholar – always in search for new things to learn that will benefit humanity for Allah’s pleasure.

If children don’t learn the way you teach then you got to teach them the way they learn – anon. This axiom is so true and if applied can obtain some remarkable results. In the Microsft Innovative Teacher Awards (MITA) that takes place every year (it began in SA in 2006) it is amazing to see what teachers are doing from Gr.R up to Gr. 12 in the classroom. The competition is open to all teachers even those in the maktabs and ulooms. When I represented South Africa in the USA in the 2006 MITA it dawned upon me just how few Muslims are participating in these types of programmes. I recall only 2 other participants of the 200 teachers who were Muslim. In 2007, I was the only Muslim – Alhamdulillah, Allah blessed me with a 3rd position who participated and it made me somewhat sad. Why? When I look at the Muslim Schools and their impeccable record of 100% pass rates I am convinced they are doing something right. In effect, we should be in the forefront.

In light of the above, there is a way to inspire you – the teacher! Where ever you teach, you can do this. In the latest Al-Huda magazine, Vol 9 ed 2, you will find two fantastic prizes (1st prize a MIMO Unit valued at R10,000 and 2nd prize a DATA projector valued at R8,000) for teachers who do the best practice lesson that is described in the BACK TO THE FUTURE column. Try it and see what it does to your life as a teacher – it will make you think and act out of the box. Then attempt to enter the MITA – closing date 30 June 2008. Visit this website for more insight: http://www.school.za/itf/index.htm

It is hoped that you are inspired to change and move the centre. You need to find the creative talent that is lurking within you – it has been suppressed for far too long. Go out – take a short course in MS Office, save up to buy a lap top rather than a shoe or new lounge suite because if you love teaching, you will spend on it. My first savings went into a laptop and data projector and since then, I have loved what technology has inspired in me. Go on – walk the talk and see the difference it will make. Illustrated here is Allah’s blessings on me, I believe so because, I chose to follow the Prophetic style of teaching which in essence is to make every life moment a teaching moment to benefit humanity for Allah’s pleasure with the bounties Allah has provided. The one bounty expounded here amongst the thousands is the bounty of technology.

Like or lump it – if you don’t embrace technology in some way or another in education you will be TIMED OUT! Finally, ask yourself this question: “How would the children I teach remember me as a teacher in the 21st century?” Technology does not improve morals but, morals do shape the use of technology. Combine good morals, a good teacher and technology – what do you have? TECHNOTEACHER!
A TEACHER, SHOULD, BY NATURE BE A GREAT MORAL BEING.
For all previous articles visit Abdullah Sujee’s blogspot: http://rendezvousofminds.blogspot.com/index.html

Abdullah Sujee
Teacher & Editor (Al-Huda Magazine)


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May Allah grant you the best blessings for this opportunity.