Will e-learning replace teachers?

We already gather information from resources such as online courses & interactive forums but in the future we may look even further to the internet for education.


Asked by: Edward Seymour, Hove

Online courses and interactive forums are becoming important in many countries as they allows students to gain access to a greater depth and breadth of information than a teacher may be able to provide.

At Georgia Institute of Technology, Prof Ashok Goel went one step further. He runs an online course in knowledge-based artificial intelligence, and created an AI teaching assistant to respond to forum posts from his students. Goel only admitted to them it was an AI after four months, “blowing their minds”. But studies also show that interaction with real people is still vital to enable children to develop normally. Children who use computers excessively show a measurable deficiency in social skills.

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