There are two technologies that have really captured the attention of educators as well as futurists. These are artificial intelligence and virtual reality. What are the implications of these new technologies in education? Quite simply they can revolutionise our educational system. The question is, at what cost to the educator?
There are many articles that state that technology will never replace a teacher, but I am of the opinion that technology might not replace a great teacher, but technology is already replacing the traditional, average teacher.
Let’s consider a classroom of a traditional teacher:
Students come into the classroom and begin to work on a worksheet. The teacher then delivers the content for that class. It might be a lecture, video, or reading from a text. Then the students do an activity with that newly learned content. Then the teacher offers more work to practice the content usually in the form of homework. Generally this is a standard day in a classroom of a traditional teacher.
Do you see anything in this example that cannot be done by Artificial Intelligence or a Virtual World? Here are five things that an AI/VR school system can do just as easily as a traditional teacher. (Notice that I use the word traditional several times when depicting the teacher.)
