Dear Mohammad Allibaih,

Irrespective of the learning context and forms of knowledge, the role and function of the master or teacher is crucial. Not to create forms of dependence on the process of knowledge, rather just to be able to be able to have and live a distance dialectic (sometimes conflicting) from a knowledge who is (or should) essentially transformative and not only an addition of competences, skills and concepts.

In all this the teacher and pupil relationship remains indispensable.

Even when the student must remain alone and become the teacher of himself, and maybe taking on this function with other peers.

The mediation of technological and informatic media does not change this educational landscape.

Certainly will, however, need to implement aspects of sensory interaction, social and empathetic.

Regards,

Mauro

Conference Paper La pelle digitale e l'identità emergente.

Hello all,

I totally agree with Mauro - the teacher whose role is changing into a facilitator would continue to be important for the students' learning journey. Well, no matter what we do in our development of the learning journey of our students the lecturers/teachers continue to be integral part - even when we talk Massive Online teaching - it is the teacher who would design, record and provide material! and even respond to the queries of students through different formats if it was through discussion, wiki or any other format including (emails) in some cases.

Regards

Theodora Issa

Nothing can replace or be a substitute to the student-teacher interactive process of teaching-learning in the class room, but can only be an add on

There is likely going to be _some_ teacher free educational system. In fact you can see that sprouting up already. I very much doubt it will be the _only_ or even the dominant educational system. Anyway, the 21st century has a long way to go, and (surprise!) teaching _will_ change in the next 87 years.

It is hard to give the answer to your question, up until now. The influence of Information Communication Technology (ICT) of “now day’s education” is obvious and evident, as well all “new” approaches “cloud sources of knowledge, peer assessment, and the internet, etc.”, as you mentioned. Therefore, the impact on the learning process (in almost all fields and levels of education) is enormous. From my point of view, we have to follow the “simple” equation: eEducation = eLearning + eTeaching.

For that reason, let us start with the famous quotation “Pedagogy, the art of teaching, under various names, has been adopted by the academic world as a respectable and an important field. The art of learning is an academic orphan. One should not be mislead by the fact that libraries of academic departments of psychology often have a section marked “learning theory.” The older books under this heading deal with the activity that is sometimes caricatured by the image of a white-coated scientist watching a rat run through a maze… newer volumes are more likely to be based upon the theories of performance of computer programs than on the behavior of animals… but… they are not about the art of learning… they do not offer advice to the rat (or to the computer) about how to learn.”, Seymour Papert (1993). The Children’s Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer.

I expand this with the question: “Is (thanks to ICT) Pedagogy, the art of teaching, the academic widow in 21st century?”

Therefore, the future of Teaching/Learning will be the appropriate research in psychology and pedagogy of how to learn (teach) with the aim of ICT, not only in Computer Science and/or Information Technologies!

Therefore, the proper questions could be “Do we have the right pedagogy for usage ICT in teaching/learning?” and “Do we ready for 21st century teacher-free educational system?”

The answer of that question could be the answer of your question “Is the 21st century going to generate a teacher-free educational system?”

Also, look at the answer on my question “eEducation - forty years of promises?” (https://www.researchgate.net/post/eEducation-forty_years_of_promises), maybe you could find new ideas.

I still want to look straight into the eyes of my students when they respond to my questions... After all these years of my research, how to use computers in education, and kind-such a success, I still do not believe that any kind of e-learning can replace a GOOD TEACHER!

Thank you Ljubomir - this is a passionate teacher... however, unfortunately, it is not passion and compassion towards learning and teaching that is running the universities, it is the number of students and graduates - and the cost involved - so, there is belief that the online classes are cheaper to run than the face-to-face! CERTAINLY THE GOOD TEACHER is irrepraceable - and what is meant by good teacher, is he one interested in their students' development, learning and teaching... always aiming at providing them with challenging and upto date tasks... not repeating the same material...

Regards

A good "teacher" has many different types of human capital that goes far beyond the traditional "stand up instructor" skills. When their skill set includes flexibility, willingness to learn, technology exploration, and abilities to guide/facilitate learners' inquiry, teachers can remain valuable assets to education regardless of where technology leads. It's not about "Will we have teachers" but about "What wil teachers do" that defines the future for us.

A dispassionate answer to the question will be a passionate 'NO'. Our relationship with 'teachers' is at least 5000 years old. This institution has the strength to survive few more centuries! I think as long as we have mothers, we will have teachers as well. The teacher-student interaction is best way of knowledge transfer. Yes, we will have new ICT solutions every now and then, new moodle, new ways of delivery BUT there has to be teacher to make sense out of it!

Maybe we won't be calling them 'teachers' anymore, but everyone needs someone to show them how to gradually move from a peripheral to a more engaged (central) participant in the community of practice (e.g. society) they chose to enter

Makes me think of Sugata Mitra's 'granny cloud' (see his TED talk, The Child Driven Education. Aside from the economics of a university and the potential choice to work with less faculty, I think it's more about changing nature of teaching and the role of the educator. Being able to move across roles - from facilitator, mentor, apprenticeship/master teacher, etc. - sometimes within one class period.

Thank you all for the interesting points - Cindy - indeed, changing roles - but not getting rid of the educator!

Fleur - may be a change in the name - but the functions might be similar!

Great questions Devang - indeed, you cannot say you have been on holiday by looking at photos - and ROBOTS (no matter if they are designed by the best Japanese scientists) will not substitute Mothers!

Regards

Theodora Issa

I am really curious about the "who" (not demographically, but in terms of identity - including how that identity involves emotions, relationships and what we currently call presence) of full-time online teachers.

@All: Just to add some salt to the wound:

The influence of Information Communication Technology (ICT) of “now day’s education” is obvious and evident. The ICT in education is here and it will stay. Therefore, the impact ICT on the learning/teaching process (in almost all fields and levels of education) is enormous. Computers (all types and sub types) are in the center of the usage of ICT in current eLearning, eTeaching and/or eEducation, and more and more “e”...

However, we had a "similar" tool: TV, projector-foil etc., before. The main difference between these, auxiliary tools and computers is the possibility that the user (student) could communicate with the computer, to have a dialogue with the computer, i.e. ask questions and get answers, like communication with a human teacher. The question is whether our (or any) eLearning system "capable" for it. Alternatively, is our (or any) eLearning system could help, when a student stuck in an infinite "acceptance" of information?

Another problem is individualized, each student learns according to her abilities, background, emotion, etc., and again, the question is whether our (or any) eLearning system "capable" these modifications?

The third and unfortunately not at last, problem is lack of let say “ePedagogy (eDidactics), or how to present learning materials in sense of above considerations?” Moreover, could we “easily” change teaching strategy in our (or any) eLearning system, when we (the system?) “see” that previous strategy is not good enough? Problems listed above (and many others) directly affect the realization of good adaptive learning/teaching environment, i.e. “Is the 21st century going to generate a teacher-free educational system?”

I strongly believe that the teaching is ART. I hope, that the goal (of all teachers and researchers in any kind of education) have to be to transform how children learn, what they learn, who they learn from, to reach the utopian Summerville way of learning and teaching, with help of ICT, not “to generate a teacher-free educational system?”.

No. The role of a teacher can never be bye-passed. Clouds of knowledge, peer assessment, and internet suffer a major shortcoming in terms of imparting unedited and non-reviewed knowledge. The teacher can direct the potential of the student towards using the plethora of information available in the appropriate manner.

not possible any more than a champion golfer can be developed without a teacher/coach