Experts advise teachers to allow new technologies in classroom

Experts called upon teachers to all new technologies in the classroom as they addressed sessions at the 39th SPELT International Conference that kicked off at Habib Public School, Karachi, on Saturday.

The two-day event is hosting more than 300 teachers. On Saturday, various plenaries, keynote speeches, workshops, talks and poster presentations attracted a large gathering of teachers from various school systems from across Karachi and other cities of the country. Most of the teachers who are attending the event are women from primary and secondary schools.

In addition, teachers from other cities such Thatta and Lahore are also attending the conference.

The keynote speaker, Dr Michael Medley, US Professor Emeritus at Eastern Mennonite University, in his talk in the auditorium, explored the necessity of teachers’ well-being and pointed out the need for self-compassion in days of stress.

He very carefully shared with the audience three major sources of stress: outer sources such as restrictions of travel and commuting and family cultures; inner restrictions such as the inner critic in which we are too harsh in our own self-criticism, and finally the way in which our work is judged by colleagues, peers and others.

In the panel discussion at the end of the day, Dr Medley said there is a great need for teachers to develop their own resilience as they climb up the career ladder of teaching.

Lubna Mohyuddin asked all the participants to share their views on the English language teaching of the future.

Dr Tamrika Khvtisiashvili, English language specialist, US State Department, who spoke on the topic of “Classroom 2.0: Tools for Digital Learning that students love”, stressed the need for teachers to be aware of and allow new technologies in the classroom. Farheen Hasan spoke about the need for inclusive classrooms in our city.

Dr Fauzia Shamim shared her experience of how students will use AI, whether teachers like it or not, and if teachers set tasks which can be solved by AI and the teachers, students will use AI to solve their problems.

The conference will continue on Sunday with a plenary by Abbas Husain, educationist, and an important panel discussion where Dr Fatima Dar, Dr John Baker and Sumaira Umrani will look at the future of the English language learning and teaching nationally and globally.