Major Trends

New pedagogical models are emerging that encourage a wide range of technologies and tools to be imbedded seamlessly into the course design.

There is an increasing interest in using new sources of data for personalizing the learning experience and for performance measurement.

The role of educators continues to change due to the vast resources that are accessible to students via the Internet.

The educational system is constantly being challenged to offer better education to more people, at the same time as technological development continually opens up new possibilities and methods of learning.
It is important that the teacher is conscious of this trend, and intervenes in the processes when it is desirable or natural to do so. Methods in the field of education with technology often require different things of the teacher at the same time demanding more student activity.
By using the studio and technology, one puts forward demands and expectations of other study habits and ways of solving learning tasks than the more traditional teaching and learning methods. The teacher is continually meeting new expectations and this can for many people feel like an extra burden. One should be a professional practitioner of one’s chosen subject area by disseminating this further, whether this is a profession or more or less separate subject areas.

As a professional, the teacher is likely to become a role model or standard for his or her students. The teacher should also be a subject developer. By this one means that the teacher should, through continual work, bring new knowledge to the subject through his/her own experience, and research and development work. The teacher’s role as a subject disseminator is also emphasised by focusing on the "good teacher", who in an inspiring and lively manner, awakens the desire, and therefore also the motivation for learning. Some teachers feel threatened by new technology and experience - that this may make the teacher superfluous. The way we see it, however, technology will never be able to make the teacher redundant, but it may make the teacher’s role different.
The teacher’s daily plan is often full of countless challenges and the time constraints are very tight. However, it is expected that creativity should be given space at work in an active search for new knowledge and new methods. In this connection it is important that the teacher feels competent to move forward with the new tasks in hand. Motivation and competence are closely connected. Increased competence leads to increased motivation to develop what one is doing, and this in turn leads to one wanting to try something new. In this the interplay between teachers, teacher and student and between students becomes very important. Positive interplay and commitment increases the motivation and the learning effect.
In distance education, as in all types of teaching, teaching material is presented and a structure for dialogue between teacher and student is established. Here the teacher and students meet as part of the learning process. The students are fellow members and must to a larger degree than in traditional teaching, be made responsible for their own learning and faith in their own ability to master the learning situation. The teacher has a responsibility to help promote learning preconditions such as working habits, attitudes, knowledge and motivation.
Thinking through various teaching methods and assessing which possibilities they offer for learning is, in our opinion, not just important, but also challenging for the teacher. New technology is continually opening up new applications, and without the urge to try out new methods the teacher’s work can seem monotonous, and the students can miss out on good and varied teaching set-ups. The importance of variation in teaching is often overlooked, although this is closely connected to the students’ motivation and activity. The use of ICT must be carefully planned and put into a pedagogical framework. It must, in other words, have a subject context and never be slung about in a careless way. It requires the teacher to possess good pedagogical and didactical knowledge and be able to apply this in such a way as to promote learning processes.