Ava-teacher

As I am reading the article "Modes of Interaction in Distance Education" by Terry Anderson, I stumble across the various definitions of "interaction" and what that term could possibly mean in 2012 as it relates to distance education. One thing that stood out to me is this quote, "Formal education is usually accomplished both with and without exclusively human interaction, and it is becoming increasingly difficulty to qualitatively differentiate between the two. Further, I believe that it is impossible to determine with certainty which exact combination of human and non human interaction is necessary for effective instruction with any group of learners..." (Anderson, 2003) 

From this quote I began to wonder when will physical teachers become completely dispensable? Is this where the education system is going? The idea that we can simply replace humans in the equation and eliminate them from some definitions of "interactions" is a bit scary. On one end I can see where humans can be replaced by computer devices and/or software (hence the term non-human) but where is the line drawn? On the grader scale what does this mean for human teachers? 

We all know that pretty soon our lives will look more like Star Wars and Star Trek than we would like. But how soon will physical teachers be replaced with avatars and/or robots in the classroom?

Anderson, T. (2003). Modes of interaction in distance education: Recent developments and research questions. In M.G. Moore & W.G. Anderson (Eds.), Handbook of distance education, (pp. 129-144). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.