Some thoughts about teacher's role in the future

(The following is a post I have created for the discussion forum of another course, and I would like to share it here as well.)

It was kind of troubling to hear that, at the very beginning of another course I am taking this quarter (Technology and Education), there is no teaching but learning. Although it makes some sense, considering the reciprocal relationship between teaching and learning, it makes me worried and forces me to think about a teacher's role in the future. Now with the unprecedented development of technology, students seem to be able to get whatever they want to learn from the internet and there are so many software packages and websites out there to help with their self-study process. Would the word "teacher" become obsolete soon?  What's the future of teachers? Are we all going to lose our jobs as teachers? What role a teacher could take in this frantically changing world?

Fortunately, Vygotsky's cultural psychology theory about cognitive development seems to be helpful in my quest of answers to the above questions. According to Vygotsky, interaction with peers and adults, as well as instruction, are essential for cognitive development. In addition, his theory of the Zone of Proximal Develop proposes that, although children might develop some concepts on their own through everyday experience, they would not develop purely abstract modes of thought without instruction in abstract sign system. The  child's ZPD is achievable only with the help and support of an adult through interaction with peers and people with more experience. ZPD can be defined as the difference between what a child can achieve unaided in problem solving and what can be achieved with the help of adults or with the peer group, and the child's own knowledge develops through experience of adults guiding the child towards a more sophisticated solution to a task (Butterworth and Harris, 1994, p.22). 

I think the role a teacher might take today or maybe in the future is as someone who is highly resourceful in certain area, sufficiently sensitive to each learner's, including his/ her own, individual aptitude, stage of development, social surroundings, and interest, and is able to provide prompt and efficient guidance to each individual learner for moving forward in his/her own pursuit of knowledge and development by engaging him/her in collaboration and interaction with people having similar interest and needs.

The brain of a human being is so far undeniably the most sophisticated machine in the world. As a human being, a capable teacher's ability of understanding and differentiating  each student from emotional, psychological, social-demographical, intellectual, and developmental aspects, synthesizing them all-together through in-depth investigation, detailed observation, and everyday interaction and communication with the learner, guiding him/her along the path by helping him/her discover what he/she can achieve next, what options are out there, and how to bring his/her own capacity into full play, is not going to be overtaken by any form of machine or software. In this sense, teachers would still be much needed and important for every child in today's world and in the future no matter how technology is going to evolve.