124 | JADE
PHILIP DEVINE
analogue representation of binary, allowing access to the power of computing through semantic interpretation. If this argument is accepted, the dichotomy that exists between the analogue and the digital could be used as a lens to gather further, more complex, evidence to interpret and facilitate future understanding of teaching and learning within digital environments, so influencing further, more complex, development of digital artefacts as learning aids.
Taking the notion of the ubiquitous teacher and using the metaphor of the Bable Fish to its logical conclusion would require the relocation of the human condition from the analogue domain to the digital domain. This notion begins to blur the boundaries between the philosophy of meaning and computing science by entering the realm of Nanocomputing, computing that is indistinguishable from human form and function. If it becomes possible for Nanocomputing or Nanodevices to interact directly with thought and digitally translate analogue mean-making, the concept of ubiquitous knowledge and understanding of that knowledge becomes a reality, relocating the human condition firmly within the digital domain to further extend the concept of cognisophere.
Conclusion
By using a semantic tool kit, the conjoined lenses of Facilitation, Instruction and Analytic Meaning, I have attempted to locate possible future guises, roles, locations and methodologies of the teacher within a 21st Century technological matrix, physical and virtual. As would be expected, my investigation has raised more questions than answers by attempting to unpack the future. But what is evident is that the meaning and location of the word‘ teacher’ is changing, and that the educational landscape, virtual and physical, will need to further adapt if it is to move beyond the industrial era, by harnessing the future potential of ubiquitous computing, openness and the identity and agency of the student / teacher relationship. Furthermore I would like to suggest that the dichotomy that exists within the analogue representation of digital information is key in realising the full potential of ubiquitous computing, with relation to the translation of data into analogue mean-making to achieve disambiguation through the metaphorical discourse that bounds research and discovery.