In the race to the Moon both the Soviets and the Americans engaged in developing technology that would allow one nation to claim the mantel of 'Placing the first human on the Moon'. As the world watched, in 1969, Neil Armstong articulated that laconic phrase, 'One small step for man, one great leap for mankind' and so the United States of America became the first country, in the history of the world, to put a human – man – on the Moon. However, we know from history that whilst the Soviets may not have put a man on the Moon they certainly had plenty of artificial humans wondering around the surface of the Moon well before, during and after Armstrong's sojourn. The Soviets moved away from manned space flight, to the Moon, and concentrated instead on robots, machines designed to take the place of man. Hence, like as in Soviet Moon exploration, virtual teaching tools have no 'm' no man. No one knows, or for that matter probably even cares, about the name of the first robot that the Soviets placed on the Moon but Neil Armstong's name will be for ever contained in the pages of History.
The only way to ensure the credibility of any virtual teaching tool, for the future, is to develop now a symbiotic relationship between it and man so that in the future its application will be accepted and universally implemented. No present application of technology will be successfully applied, within institutions; primary or secondary, if those institutions responsible for the education of future educationalists, do not undertake to re – invent their pedagogies surrounding the delivery of curriculum. Hence, changes to the current model of Education will only occur if Universities, where the future educators of the world are to be taught, imbibe this approach. One way, in which this process could take place would be through the development of ITM – Integrated Teaching Model. The development of ITM will focus on three key areas – ICT, Pedagogy and Educational Links.
ICT's must play a seminal role in the development of education in the 21st century and beyond and from ICT's there will develop the nexus that exists between Pedagogy and Educational Links. Clearly, the works of a number of writers, for example, Cetron and Cetron (2003) and Colon and Simpson (2003) have all articulated the important role that ICT's will play in any future developments of Education. However, juxtaposed to that is the problem faced by institutions in implementing ICT's
within the current model of Education. As highlighted by Jukes (2002), Education has not changed in
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50 years, whilst business' have changed yesterday. Hence, in order to address this situation Universities need to commence introducing courses that will encourage students to experiment with and also implement ICT's within their course work. But those same institutions must develop and encourage the use of those skills within primary and secondary schools. The change that will take place cannot exist in a vacuum but must be interconnected via a symbiotic relationship – the University and the student – man. The Universities must develop the necessary cyber links that will create educational opportunities for their graduates. Clearly, those educational opportunities need to encompass the application of ICT's within not only their course work but also the 'real world'. Once, this link has been established the focus must then turn to the application of ICT's within The Classroom of the Future – The Virtual Teacher. By undertaking such an approach the corollary that exists between each facet of the ITM process can be implemented and thus allow for the transitional change that will need to occur from the current Educational model to the Virtual Educational model.
Technology is advancing at an ever increasing rate, information is being obtained by individuals at a faster rate and with more complexity than at any time previously in history (Jukes, 2002). This situation has culminated in impacting on the Education system by forcing it to engage in the creation of tools that reflect a 21st century application. Yet, within many classrooms, in the developing world, the way in which students are being taught has not changed in the past 50 years (Jukes, 2002). Therefore, what has occurred is a convergence of the old and the new, and unfortunately for Education the new is sometimes hard to imbibe. Consequently, changes and developments within Education have been stymied by the inability of the system to find a way to adequately come up with a solution to move thousands of individuals through change. A change that for nearly 200 years has focused on a teacher/lecturing philosophy. In order for there to be a smooth transition from this environment to the cyber environment Education must undergo the transition from a lecturing, teaching model to one focusing on student management followed by eventually student self - management. We cannot jump from our current 19th century educational model to one encapsulating a 21st century philosophy without first creating the necessary environment that will allow for a smooth transition. We all know that modern aircraft can take off, fly and land without the assistance of humans but no one will at present, get in to a plane without a pilot firmly ensconced in the driving seat. Why?
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Simply because people are not ready, yet. The pilot unions are not ready, the traveling public are not ready and the airline companies are not ready. Possibly in 50 years time they will be but unless something is done to placate the concerns of all those involved no one will be getting in to a pilot less aircraft for many years to come. So why should Education be any different? There needs to be a transition stage between the current model of Education and that associated with the virtual delivery of Education. Without such a process, Education will never truly develop, with the assistance of ICT's, in to a vibrant, evolving virtual entity devoid of teacher influence and specifically student focused. This Middle Phase of Education, the transitional phase, is what I refer to as – Teacher Facilitator; where the teacher acts as a facilitator and a manager of knowledge responding to the individual needs of their clients in a world linked by cyber technology encompassing a curriculum that is focused on ensuring that those engaged in its application are not left behind. It is the phase in the Education process where Universities, responsible for teacher education, move away from the 19th model of Education and commence the transition to the 21st century and beyond. Gathering with them the technology, and creating the confidence in that technology, that will bring all humanity together. In this way, the Education system will be able to integrate the community, business and government. The Teacher Facilitator emphasizes the need for changing the way in which we 'teach'. By undertaking such a stance the Teacher Facilitator creates the necessary transitional pedagogical approach to the delivery of Education in the 21st century. Without such a development the implementation of a student centered self managed pedagogy focusing on the inclusion of the virtual (math) teacher will still be a long way off.
The Teacher Facilitator pedagogy emphasizes an approach to Education that requires the teacher, who will have the role of a facilitator and manager of knowledge, as opposed to a giver of knowledge, to respond to individual student needs via computer assisted technology. The teacher will use technology, with the assistance of pedagogy to steer and guide students. Within this framework Certon and Certon (2003) argued that teachers will become mentors, facilitators, whose job it is not to lecture to students but instead help students to learn via the collection, evaluation, analyzing and synthesizing of information. This framework will culminate in, as outlined by Lawson and Comber (2000), the blurring of the traditional roles of teacher/pupil and a shift in power relationships that are a direct result of the different styles of teaching associated with ICT's. In this way, for example, the
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marking of term papers, end of term reports a student's inability to read etc should become anachronistic as data, collected, analyzed and responded to on a daily basis, with the assistance of technology, by TF circumvents the old 19th century education model. No longer will students flounder in the classroom due to a lack of understanding or be bored, and thereby become disengaged with Education because of the simplicity of concepts. The TF will, via technology, be able to meet the individual learning needs of their clients and consequently, address a number of perplexing problems confronting educationalists in the 21st century. The center piece to this transitional change will be the development and implementation of a Rapid Delivery, Collection, Analysis and Response Tool – (RDCAR – T) – WORM's. These tools are designed to be used, in conjunction with the TF, to individual address the learning needs of students and to facilitate outcomes that reflect a facilitator/management style approach to knowledge acquisition.
The center point of ITM will be facilitating the transition of a teacher centered Educational philosophy to one exhibiting a virtual student self centered approach, via the an Educational philosophy, that reflects a growing awareness of society's understanding of the benefits derived by a movement away from a teacher centered to a student self centered approach. One of the key elements of this development will be, through the implementation of WORM's, the capacity of TF to engage large cohorts of students in the educational process. WORM's will be designed to meet the plethora of needs students will be required to undertake in the Educational process of the 21st century and beyond. By linking the development and application of these WORM's to the course work of future educators the educational acumen of those educators will increase and will culminate in their, and society's, increased interest in the use of ICT's. The benefits derived by the use of this type of approach, to education, will substantially impact on those directly involved in Education and therefore, both promulgate and propagate the use of ICT's within the Educational environment. Hence, WORM's will represent the vehicle by which student centered learning will be facilitated. As Universities, Society and Governments become more acquainted and accustomed to the the application of ICT's so will Society become more comfortable with a virtual tool designed to encourage student centered learning. In order to encourage this development there needs to be a greater emphasis placed on Education, within Universities, and that emphasis should relate to the application of this process in addressing the needs of students now. Clearly, that focus needs to be on literacy and numeracy.
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If one looks at the products developed by Kurzweil, for example Kurzweil 3000 . . .' the Premier reading, writing and learning software for struggling students – dyslexia, learning difficulties...' such products are designed to assist students with learning difficulties. Clearly, these products could have a much greater influence or impact on Society if their application was undertaken within the framework of ITM. Imagine the following scenario -
'A teacher, primary school, is teaching 40 students, in year 5, to read. The school has developed a system which incorporates the use of both computer generated and hard cover reading material. All of the reading material has been graded with respect the degree of difficulty that each piece has in relation to the year of the student. The school has determined that by year 5 students should be able to read books of level F at the commencement of year 5
and level H at the completion of year 5. The teacher uses the Kurzweil 3000 to assist in teaching the students to read but they will still be required to individually assess each student to ascertain their reading level. That could take hours, days or even weeks. All that time the students could be falling behind in their reading because no one has actually assessed their acquisition. If the Kurzweil 3000 had attached to it a WORM – Reading Assessment Tool then the application of that tool would compliment the reading tool. Each student could at the end of the lesson be asked to deliver a presentation, via a platform linked to the WORM – Reading Assessment Tool and depending upon what assessment items the WORM reviews the teacher could before the end of the lesson know at what level each student is, the names of students successfully achieving the desired outcomes, the names of students who are not etc. Such a simple tool, as WORM – Reading Assessment Tool will have an immediate impact on the learning of the students. The ability of the WORM to rapidly analyze and respond to the data presented to it will influence those who use the tool as an assessment tool, the teacher, the student who used it as an assessment item, and parents via immediate feed back, on the daily performance of their child. This development would culminate in creating an atmosphere where eventually there will be a more effective use of ICT's, within the classroom, paving the way for the implementation of virtual teaching.'
Similar tools could also be created for numeracy, implemented and developed around the same application.
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In order to help establish the necessary Educational link, with future educationalists, this application must also focus on ensuring that the technology is being associated with the course work of future Teacher Facilitators (fTF). By creating this link the application for the technology can be applied to the current Educational environment and therefore ensure its continued application This linkage is crucial because hastening teachers in to the cyber world (Colon and Simpson, 2003) will have very little impact, unless there is a clear educational vision articulated as to why this change to the cyber world is happening. The linkage, that will occur within the fTF program will undoubtedly substantiate the implementation of ICT's and therefore, articulate not only a clear educational vision but also a clear educational outcome. Hence, part of the course work of a fTF would be associated with working directly with the Primary school teacher in assessing the data derived from the WORM and then reviewing that data to help manage the learning of the students in the class.
By applying this approach the fTF can see the benefits derived from ICT's and have a direct influence on the future direction of both the class' learning and the development of the WORM. This application would placate one of the major concerns for the future use of ICT's in the cyber classroom, as highlighted by Dooley (1999), in that innovations are not put in to practice because they conflict with deeply held internal images of how the world works and that those images often limit individuals to think in a familiar way. Whilst simultaneously addressing Colon and Simpson's (2003) concerns that a number of obstacles impact on the use of ICT's in schools; the heavy demands made of teachers, infrastructure deficiencies, the lack of ICT skills for teachers and by citing Cuban's work, in California, where Cuban expressed the opinion that teachers themselves are traditionally slow to change and that if policy reforms, for example ICT, are not imbibed by teachers then the end result will be that there will only be a superficial impact.
A transition from a 19th to 21st pedagogy will be necessary as the process of change, quite clearly evident in the explosion of the internet, for example, has created for Education a paradox. In order to change, Education must accept 21st century technology but at the same time that technology, in many cases, is being shunned by the very individuals who must apply it. One of the major problems confronting the smooth introduction of technology is that at present it application within Education is convoluted. There does not yet appear to be any noticeable link between the companies developing
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these 'teaching' products and the Universities who are the main suppliers of the user market. Coupled with this Universities have not really geared their students, the future educators, for the use of those 'teaching' products. There is also no noticeable links with respect the application,again, of those 'teaching' products with the virtual classroom as a combined movement. Rather the development appears to be driven by a desire to have the technology, because you know that it works, as opposed to creating an understanding amongst the entire school community of the application of technology in conjunction with human intervention. This seminal point was clearly highlighted with respect to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The CIA had spent billions of dollars investing in virtual agents only to discover that they had lost the human factor, with respect to intelligence. This situation culminated in information not being obtained and acted upon. As a society we must continue to move ahead as quickly and as decisively as possible. However, that decisive action must not be at the loss of human involvement in the Education process, at this stage. Ray Kurzweil's belief that, the world is entering a new era that he calls 'the Singularity' does not negate the inclusion of human facilitation in Education as a means of transitioning the world. I would, and no doubt many others, agree with Kurzweil's view, To contemplate stopping that — to think human beings are fine the way they are — is a misplaced fond remembrance of what human beings used to be. What human beings are is a species that has undergone a cultural and technological evolution, and it's the nature of evolution that it accelerates, and that its powers grow exponentially, and that's what we're talking about. The next stage of this will be to amplify our own intellectual powers with the results of our technology. (Kurzweil, 2001)
However, it is important not to forget history, as those that do a are condemned to repeat it. The 'Industrial Revolution' must also be considered as '. . . a merger between human intelligence and machine intelligence (and) in doing so create(d) something bigger than itself.' Kurzweil (2001) The impact of the Industrial Revolution on society, and the implications associated with its rapid development in today's society are a direct result of a non existent transitional period. The merger between human intelligence and machine intelligence needs to evolve so that the acceptability of virtual teachers, in the next 30 to 40 years, will in effect culminate in achieving outcomes that will benefit all of humanity. I believe that the human element associated with Education, within the transitional phase of 'the Singularity' revolution, will help and not hinder the cultural and technological advances highlighted by Kurzweil. Humans respond better to change when they are fully cognizant of
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the outcomes that change will impact on them. The only way in which that can be successfully enacted is to engage individuals at the point of direct entry to technology – Educational Institutions. Therefore, before any transitional developments can take place there needs to be change happening within those institutions. By addressing this humanity will be able to see and understand the benefits that a 'Singularity' society will be able to enjoy. A failure to undertake such action could culminate in further alienating society and therefore, continue to retard the application of ICT's within the Educational setting.
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References
Cetron, M. & Cetron, K. (2003). A Forecast for schools. Educational Leadership, 61 (4), 22 – 30.
Cetron, M., & Davies, O. (2003). Trends Shaping the Future. Futurist, 37 92), 30 – 44.
The Classroom of the Future. (2001). Newsweek, 138, 60 – 65.
Conlon, T., & Simpson, M. (2003). Silicon Valley versus Silicon glen: the impact of computers upon teaching and learning: a comparative study. British Journal of Educational Technology, 34 (2), 137.
Davies, T. (2004). Changing schools of thought: back to the future. Research in Education, 71, 9 – 16.
Dooley, K. (1999). Towards a Holistic Model for the Diffusion of Educational Technologies: An Integrative Review of Educational Innovation Studies. Educational Technology & Society, 2 (4).
Jukes, Ian (2002). The Digital Disconnect from the Pew Internet and American Life Project http://www.edtechnot.com/notarticle1002a.html
Kurzweil,Ray.(2001) TheSingular http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/kurzweil_singularity/kurzweil_singularity_index.html
Lawson, T., & Comber, C. (2000). Introducing Information and Communication Technologies in to Schools: blurring the boundaries. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 21 (3), 419 – 433.
Leigh, G. (2000). Key markers in Victoria's information journey in to the knowledge age. Australian Educational Computing, 15 91), 7 – 12.
Nichol, J., & Watson, K. (2003). Rhetoric and reality – the past and the future of ICT in Education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 34 (2), 131.
Reynolds, D., Treharne, D., Tripp, H. (2003). ICT – The hopes and the Reality. British Journal of Educational Technology, 34 (2), 151 – 167.
Snyder, D. P. (2004). A Look at the Future. American School Board Journal, 191 (1), 1.
Willms, J. D., & Corbett, B. (2003). Tech and teens: Access and use. Statistics Canada, 11(8), 15 – 20.
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