Where is the teacher in a virtual learning environment?

Abstract

One of the most important contributions of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the field of education is the support of distance education .Virtual learning (VL) is a modality of distance education that makes intensive use of ICT through Internet. Thus, students have maximum flexibility, adapting their studies to their own rhythm, and surroundings at any specific time (Simonson, 2000). This educational model, that at the moment has little reach, will be a model of reference in nearest future, as confirmed by Unesco (Unesco, 2006) and by other sources (Kaczmarczyk, 2001). Nowadays Unesco recognizes more than 100 important universities around the world that offer this model of education (Unesco, 2006). However, regarding the promises of VL the adoption of such learning modality by learning institutions has not been as fast as expected. In the our Virtual University (VU, 2006) we have conducted a study that points out some interesting results that could explain why VL based on ICT has not taken off as expected. We proposed a survey in order to know which of the main elements of our virtual laboratories were the most valuable for them and we obtained no awaited results. By a great difference, the students valued more important the academy staff and pedagogical resources than the ICT resources. In short, the teacher is more important than the best technology, even for a virtual lab where technical aspects should be extremely relevant. This result could explain the failure of many organizations that tried to create VLE assuming they could replace the traditional teacher by technological resources.