Even if it is more economic, the development of a virtual dimension to universities does not imply that they will cease to exist in physical reality. Many universities that have sought to exist solely on the Internet have found that students want some part of their education in physical reality. What we could be seeing is the development of a global/local hybrid university that exists in virtual and physical reality on the Internet, and in buildings serving global needs and local needs. A technology that allows this duality is HyperReality.
Developed in Japan’s Advanced Telecommunica- tions Research Laboratories under the leadership of Nobuyoshi Terashima, HyperReality is a platform that is being developed for broadband Internet. HyperReality permits the seamless interaction of virtual realities with
physical realities and human intelligence with artificial
intelligence (Terashima, 2001). Jaron Lanier has since developed a similar concept of intermeshing physical and virtual realities, which he calls Teleimmersion (Lanier, 2001). However, this does not allow for the
interaction of artificial and human intelligence.
Working with Terashima from 1993 on the appli-
cation of HyperReality to education, Tiffin and Raja- singham coined the concept schemata: HyperClass, HyperSchool, HyperCollege, and HyperUniversity (2001) to describe an educational environment in which physically real students, teachers, and subject matter could seamlessly interact with virtual students, teachers,
and subject matter, and artificial and human intelligence
could interact in the teaching/learning process. What
makes this possible is a coaction field which “provides
a common site for objects and inhabitants from physical reality and virtual reality and serves as a workplace or activity area within which they interact” (Terashima,
2001, p. 9). Coaction takes place in the context of a
specific domain of integrated knowledge. So a coaction field could be a game played between real and virtual
people, or a real salesperson selling a car to virtual customers (who and what is real and who and what is virtual depends on the kind of perspective of self that exists in a telephone conversation). A HyperClass is
a coaction field in which physically real students and
teachers in a real classroom can synchronously interact
in a joint learning activity that involves a clearly defined
subject domain with virtual students and teachers in other classrooms in other universities in other countries.
The first experimental HyperClass took place in 2000
between teachers and students at Waseda University and at Victoria University in Japan. To the people in Japan, the New Zealanders were virtual; to the people in New Zealand, the Japanese were virtual. The subject was antique Japanese ceramics, and virtual copies of these were passed back and forth between the two classrooms that made up the HyperClass (Terashima, 2001).
A HyperClass creates a common space to reconcile learning that is local with learning that is global. It can be conducted in more than one language and holds out the possibility of understanding a subject from the multiple perspectives of different cultures using text, aural, and three-dimensional visual modes of communications
(Tiffin & Rajasingham, 2001, 2003).
jItaIt
The HyperClass enables communication and interac- tion between physical reality and virtual reality, but what could have even more impact on universities is that it provides a platform for communication between
human and artificial intelligence. Applying HR to edu- cation means applying AI to education and designing a
pedagogical interaction between human and artificial
intelligence.
At the heart of the Vygotskyian approach expressed in the Zone of Proximal Development (1978) is the idea
that when a learner has difficulty in applying knowledge
to a problem, they will learn more effectively if they can turn to someone in the role of teacher who can help them. This is the fundamental purpose of education, yet in the modern school and university, teachers are
only available to respond to student needs during fixed
hours, and even then have to share their attention with
large groups of students. In principle, an artificially
intelligent agent can be available whenever they are needed. Hence, the idea of just-in-time artificial intel- ligent tutors (JITAITs). In a university, they would be experts in a particular subject domain and endlessly learning from frequently asked questions, and available anytime and anywhere to deal with the more repetitive
functions of teaching (Tiffin & Rajasingham, 2003).
conclusIon
There is growing disjuncture between the demand for university education and the capacity of conventional universities to respond. The modern university is based on building and transport technologies and becomes increasingly costly. There has to be a way that is more
economical and efficient, more matched to the times and
technologies we live with, more open to people with languages other than English, and more concerned with the curricula needs and cultural concerns of globaliza- tion that are available to anyone throughout their lives. Virtual universities have appeared in response to this and conventional universities are developing virtual global dimensions on the Internet. But the Internet is becoming broadband, and computers are becoming more powerful and portable. Universities could become a hybrid mixture of the traditional place-based institu- tions that we know and that address local needs, and as cyber-based businesses that address global markets. An emergent technology that addresses this is HyperReality which could see HyperClasses in HyperUniversities that incorporate the use of JITAITs. Will they be the new academics?
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key terms
HyperClass, HyperLecture, HyperSeminar, HyperTutorial: Classes, lectures, seminars, and tutori-
als that take place in a coaction field in HyperReality.
This means an interaction between virtual teachers and students and objects, and physically real teachers and students and objects, in order to learn how to ap-
ply a specific domain of knowledge. It allows for the use of artificially intelligent tutors. Such systems are
currently experimental, but have the potential to be used on the Internet.
HyperSchool, HyperCollege, HyperUniversity:
The term Hyper means that these institutions could exist in HyperReality. HyperReality is where virtual reality and physical reality seamlessly intersect to allow interaction between their components, and where hu-
man and artificial intelligences can communicate. The
technological capability for this is at an experimental stage, but could be made available with broadband Internet.
JITAITS: Just-In-Time Artificially Intelligent
Tutors are expert systems available on demand in HyperReality environments to respond to frequently
asked student questions about specific domains of
knowledge.
Virtual Class, Virtual Lecture, Virtual Seminar, and Virtual Tutorial: Classes, lectures, seminars, and tutorials are communication systems that allow people in the relative roles of teachers and learners to interact
in pursuit of an instructional objective and to access supporting materials such as books and blackboards. The use of linked computers makes it possible for such interaction to take place without the physical presence of teachers and learners or any instructional materials or devices such as books and blackboards. The Internet now provides a global infrastructure for this, so that the terms have become synonymous with holding classes, lectures, seminars, and tutorials on the Internet.
Virtual School, Virtual College, Virtual Uni- versity: The term virtual refers to the communication capabilities of these institutions, and implies that they can be achieved by means of computers linked by tele- communications which in effect today means by the Internet. The term virtual is used to contrast the way communications in conventional schools, colleges, and universities requires the physical presence of teachers and learners and instructional materials, and invokes the use of transport systems and buildings.