Proceedings of The 6th International Conference on Future of Teaching and Education
Year: 2022
DOI:
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The Teacher in a World of Digital Technologies – New Roles, Representations, Perceptions(Case Studies of the Development of Bulgarian Educational Online Platforms and Sites during the Covid 19 Pandemic)
Teodora Antonieva Todorova
ABSTRACT:
The fast development of the Internet and digital technologies has led to many fundamental transformations in the sphere of education which has highly affected the teaching profession. New attractive forms of online education have appeared and challenged the traditional pillars of the brick and mortar school as an institution. In the light of these processes the present study aims at revealing the current position of the teacher by studying their new roles, representations and the ways in which they are perceived. The following insights are the result of several case studies of popular Bulgarian educational online platforms and Internet sites in their development for the period between 2019 and 2022. These cases are seen in the context of the transformational processes that go parallel in the Bulgarian educational institution under the pressure of the pandemic reality. By combining different research methods – observation of online educational practices, content analysis of educational, advertising and media materials, in-depth semi-structured interviews with creators of educational platforms, teachers, students and parents, this study aims at presenting different perspectives towards the image of the teacher today. Four aspects of the observed transformations that appeared to be important during the research are presented in the separate parts of the presentation: “The Teacher as a Sage” and “The Teacher on the Stage” (with reference to Alison King), “The Tech Teacher” and “The Human Teacher”. My intention is to open a discussion on what are the new expectations towards the teacher in a world of digital technologies and how teachers can respond to them.
Keywords: education, internet, teaching, paradigm shift, 21st century.