Tomorrow teacher

If I were starting out today to pursue a career in teaching, this is what I would do:

1. Rent teaching space in a building with high speed internet access.
2. Make a deal with a smartphone company to sell or give their latest device to students who sign up for my teaching sessions.
3. Make a deal with some advertisers of projects valuable to students (museums, media) to help with the cost of my students’ 24/7 wireless access in return for limited time display of ads on the students’ phones. Many other ways of monetizing access are coming.
4. Advertise to the locality where my teaching space is rented for students to register for specific subjects I will teach them.
5. Make a deal with an online testing service to test my students after completion of my teaching, and to certify their level of competence based on the tests they take.

I would teach only what I am interested in and know, such as world history, American history, and civics. My teaching would include one-on-one sessions with students, group discourse, and virtual discourse across the internet. Students ages would be mixed: they would be accepted based on their competence for the subject and demonstrated motivation to learn it.

A key goal of my teaching would be to instruct each student in how to use the network of online knowledge for our subject to continue to learn more into the future. Student families could pay me directly or tap into scholarships I would arrange with private sector sponsors.

When I was 23, I taught high school for a year — a half a century ago. Over the years since my 1960-61 revolving door teaching experience, the internet has removed the barriers that repelled me then: cookiecutter classes, disregard that students learn so little, and administrative frustration. I was driven out of teaching then.

I would be eager to enter teaching today because the future is full of promise. Lockstep, low expectations schooling is fading from relevance as the internet emerges to partner with the teacher of tomorrow.