Our Tech Advisory Board (Stowe Boyd, Kelly Brough, Matt Jones, Euan Semple and Colin Tate) came in yesterday to grill us on how we're developing the site. They gave us a good going over about our future tech priorities, how we can start conversations between our users, and how we're measuring the success of what we've built so far. It's great to have such experienced people on hand to help us build something of real value.
One of the things they pushed us on is the distinction between "teachers" and "learners". We want to help professional teachers advertise their services, but it's pretty clear from the general feedback that the word "teacher" also puts off many people with skills and experience to share. We think everyone has something to teach - but how many of us would call ourselves teachers? And is calling some of our members "teachers" and others "learners" just reinforcing unhelpful divisions, or respecting teachers for their skills in passing on what they know?
So, should we drop "teaching" and "learning" entirely and replace them with something more playful? Any ideas?
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As a non-native English speaker, I would keep only "teaching" that is easy to understand for an international audience. Learning English as a second language, "teacher" is like "cat" or "table".
And I like funny things, but I would like to trust a professional when I pay to get a lesson on something.
Hope this is useful.
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Hmmm, interesting problem to have. True, the word teacher is misleading or perhaps psychologically linked to school learning too much...
Being able to teach is a scary idea but people talk about things to each other every day.
What about knowledge sharing. Someone like Seth Godin isn't a teacher, but I learn from him. He has knowledge and he shares it... Is it that simple?
Maybe keep teacher/learner for qualification-based knowledge exchanges - where you are always teaching towards a set range of objectives - no matter how 'creative' you are. It would be good to have a less formal language for other forms of teacher/learner interaction.
I am going back to University to Learn about Programming from a Teacher but my course at the local college learning about Reiki will be less formal as students will share in the learning process and teach each other through practical exercises - I'm liking the knowledge/sharing comment above...
Thanks everyone, that's really helpful. There's clearly a value to the word "teacher" - the problem seems to be that it's a bit too big, it puts people off either because they don't feel qualified or don't have time to set themselves up as an "official" teacher. We'd like to preserve teacher as a positive word that implies skill and accountability, but also create a space for the amateurs to share their skills and experience without any pressure.
Maybe we need three words? Teaching, learning and exploring?
I see the problem as being the current cultural understanding of the word "Teacher". We're still very much tied to the concept of teacher as 'holder of knowledge', rather than the one who leads by being an example.
When learning is by choice, with the teacher being a more experienced co-learner, then I think the term 'mentor' is more appropriate.