Changing Role of Teachers in Open Online Learning - The raise of the Teacherpreneur

While the paradigm shift brings dramatic changes for teacher and education institution alike, it is the teachers I am most concerned about at this point. Teachers that have read my blog may have become a little worried about their future with the changes brought about by this paradigm shift.
The reality is actually quite the reverse, for I believe that open online learning will be the fastest growth industry in the early part of the 21st century and teachers are the best placed individuals on the planet to exploit and benefit from this change.

It is you the teacher, not the administrators, certifiers, auditors and education policy makers that the world really wants. The knowledge hungry people of the planet need your help to turn the exponential growth in information into learning that they can absorb and apply to their need, suituation and problem. So break free from the shackles that may have restricted your passion and take your place in the emerging open-online revolution - so become a teacherpreneur.

Here are a few things you might want to consider when preparing yourself for the change:

• Admit to yourself and the world right now that you are not the expert but rather the facilitator of learning. Lose forever that fraudulent feeling. Redirect, rediscover and revitalize once more that passion you had for teaching. You have the power. The future is yours. It is you the world wants. 
• Learn a foreign langauge in an emerging zone that is likely to want your resources. For sheer number of people then Mandarin is a great option or for the most countries and most people then maybe Spanish. Arabic would be an equally good option. 
• Go read some (or all) of the handouts of the educationalist Ian Jukes in relation to digital age learning. 
• Go and put a learning module on Richard Baraniuk's (Rice University Texas www.cnx.org) Connexions educational website on something you know lots about. Or start a course at www.schoox.com. 
• Rediscover your love of learning and use the internet to become a world expert on subjects deep within your passion. No one owns you. You are a learning companion for the global community. You are a teacher - what an honor! 
• Leave your current courseware resources and Intellectual Property (IP) with the rightful owners. Remember - "Render to Ceasar the things that are Ceasars" .. but the rest of the IP is yours. Use your creativity to make new and different IP products that the information/global age really wants. Don't have your thoughts clouded by the constraint of certification and out dated courseware structures. Just help students become competent in their areas of interest and concern. 
• Write! Write! Write! – Write because you feel compelled to express and post it to the web for the world to see. Try it now – write an article then link it to the course you have created on www.myicourse.com or www.schoox.com where you can establish a passive income for yourself whilst you add value to the lives of the world's hungry learners. 
• Create digital products and sell them to the world – Powerpoints, e-topics, e-books, worksheets, workbooks, simulation games, ask the expert audio series, create a diagnostics test, make a multimedia CD, make up a game, get on the speakers circuit. Create new digital educational products and sell them on eBay or through online affilliate networks. 
• Free your mind from the shackles of audit, administration and compliance. Seize the day! Spend time to think through and find answers to those areas that have bugged you for so long. Seek out original thought and then tell the world about it – on the web. Write it here in Blogger. 
• Teach your students how to learn. Teach them how to discern ‘fact from fiction’. Expose them to the world of multi-media information and misinformation and show them how to master it, how to discover the gems and to discard the rubbish. Promote censorship in learning no more. You have suffered enough and you should take it no more. Free the people! 
• Become a guide, a coach, a mentor. Facilitate learning – Say you don’t know and then go together with the student to find the answer. Partner with your students. Be the hungriest student in the room. No one should want to know the truth more than you. 
• Collaborate with your peers across the globe. Form social online networks. Enrich you life and your craft. Join some social teacher networks and look for like minded people to help create teaching & learning products with you. 
• You know that the only real learner is a self motivate one, so when you see the spark, light the fire instantly with online searchers. Forget timetables, capture that moment of interest – foster the love of learning. 
• Realize that you are creating renaissance people – people pursuing their full potential in a variety of multi-dimensional interests. Teach them about legacy, the life of significance and their contribution for the common good. Tell them they are going to ‘make a difference’ and then help them make it so. 
• Turn what you know into online courseware, whether it be maths, growing roses or just how to be a good friend. Charge $10 for the course and the 4.8 billion that are yet to log on to the internet and may pay it will be eternally grateful. Make money by adding value not ripping off -maintain your integrity. 
• Help others you know from industry or life with intellectual capital to create courseware or other IP products for their knowledge, know-how or expertise. Make money from the service or % of the sales. Put it online. Make money while you sleep. 
• Learn how to publish a blog, how to create courseware for free on myicourse.com. Start your own online university today on your area of interest. It can be done! 
• Forget memorization. All necessary information will soon be available instantly on computers & mobile phones. Better to teach problem solving abilities, critical thinking ability that can discern 'fact from fiction', teach adaptability (un-learn & re-learn), encourage creative and innovative abilities. 
• Learn how to make a video and post it to YouTube. Share what you know with the world. Create a world-wide class of students who await your online posts. Try to find ways to turn learning into gaming. Teach by active participation in games. Incorporate simulation, virtual reality and role play in all learning engagements. 
• Put on workshops, facilitate discussion groups, create you own learning camp to re-engineer the social side of learning. Create a space where learners can come together and share their learning and experiences.

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