I learnt from books and was guided by my teachers. I expect my kids will learn from books, videos and software and still be guided by teachers.
And as someone who has spent a fruitless day googling for how to do a relatively simple task I can confidently state that mentoring by an accomplished human beats software any day of the week.
I don't see how that follows. Horse-drawn vehicles weren't replaced by trains, but they still were eventually replaced. I don't know if teachers will be replaced by software, but the fact that they weren't replaced by previous technologies is hardly strong evidence against it.
And as someone who has spent a fruitless day googling for how to do a relatively simple task I can confidently state that mentoring by an accomplished human beats software any day of the week.
Well, let's look at the evidence. Since that event, have you stopped using Google and hired a teacher to follow you around to you can ask her/him stuff?
Assuming you haven't, then clearly Google is a better solution, whether it is due to cost, breadth of information, availability, etc.
Now, of course, learning a syllabus is hardly the same as searching for information on random tasks. But then again, so would any software designed to "replace teachers"; clearly no one will suggest using Google for the task.
Personally, I don't think teachers as a whole will be replaced, but I can see it allowing teachers to take on bigger classes, allowing administrators to cut costs by firing a few.
So we agree - teachers won't get replaced :-)
but books allowed teachers to take on bigger classes too - and what happened is more people went to classes and we needed more teachers. Maybe we shall see something similar just less classrooms?