Opera's window to the world stage: Why right now, we need real learning and real teachers

When I opened the Opera browser on Saturday night and scrolled through the news feed, the world had, once again, changed. Images flashed from Tehran that I never thought I'd see: plumes of smoke and the tear-streaked faces of Iranian news anchors as they were forced to tell their nation that the country's long-serving spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had been killed in a joint US-Israeli strike. It's in moments like these that you realise the immense importance, not just of how information is delivered, but of how we learn to understand this new, frighteningly complex world.

As I dug deeper into the sequence of events, the operation revealed itself to be on an entirely different scale to the 12-day summer war between Iran and Israel. This was a strike aimed directly at the head of the hydra. Intelligence services had spent months tracking Khamenei's movements, his daily routine, even his communication methods. They were waiting for that rare moment when all the key leaders would be in the same place. That moment came on Saturday morning when the security council and defence elite gathered in Tehran's government precinct. A strike planned for the cover of night was quickly adapted into a precisely timed daylight operation – and with surgical precision, all three buildings were destroyed simultaneously.

A history lesson and the Oppenheimer dilemma

This is a monumental moment in history, the likes of which we haven't seen since the 1979 revolution. The Shah's son, Reza Pahlavi, living in exile, has already declared the end of the road for the Islamic Republic. But what does this actually mean for everyday Australians, reading the news from their own living rooms?

At this point, my mind inevitably turns to Oppenheimer. It's not just that we're now talking about nuclear weapons and their threat, even though the official line has already promised to "flatten Iran's missiles." It's about a broader phenomenon: the dual-use nature of information and technology. Just as the atomic bomb developed by Oppenheimer changed the world, today's technology – like, say, the humble Opera browser – is a double-edged sword. It's a window to the world, but at the same time, it's a platform through which both truth and falsehood spread. The very same tools used to plan this precise strike to kill Khamenei are the ones the Iranian people are now trying to organise with, and the ones being used to try and cut their communications. According to insiders, internet connections in the country have been cut almost entirely.

The teacher's role in a new world order

In this chaos, the importance of one thing rises above all others: the role of the teacher and of learning. We can no longer raise our kids to see the world in black and white. This isn't a movie with clear-cut heroes and villains. Reports from the streets of Tehran suggest you can hear both shouts of joy and people crushed by grief.

• Critical thinking: We need to learn to spot disinformation, as news channels label some "martyrs" and others "terrorists."
• Understanding context: Why did Israel and the US act right now? And why did Russia's leadership immediately offer its deepest condolences following Khamenei's "murder"?
• Mastering the tools: We need to know how to use digital tools – browsers, learning games – not just for entertainment, but as instruments for deep, meaningful research.

I can only imagine what it's like to be a teacher in Iran or Israel right now. How do you explain to your students that the world is on the brink of igniting? How do you make them believe that learning matters when missiles are flying overhead? Or how does an Australian history teacher make sense of this moment, where the old, established frameworks are crumbling before our eyes?

Where to from here?

It feels like we're only at the beginning. The Israeli Defense Forces have named their operation "Operation Roaring Lion," and it's only just started. The fighting could go on for days, and retaliatory strikes from Iran have already claimed lives in Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv. Even though sources suggest the US administration is hinting that a "potential new leadership" might be open to negotiations, for now, the full focus is on military force.

Amidst all of this, each of us has one task: to be an active learner. We can't just look away. We need to follow reliable sources, question things, and strive to understand. And when we power up the computer and open Opera, or any other browser, we need to remember that it's not just a source of entertainment – it's a tool for knowledge and survival in the midst of accelerating chaos.