In the 21st century education is going through transformation in the sense that educational authorities are constantly thinking of moving away from the bricks and mortar classroom to a virtual classroom which makes use of the internet and other devices to help students learn at their own pace. This transformation has brought a myriad of debates on the educational front and one of such debates is the teacher's role in this virtual class.In the industrial age or the brick and mortar classroom, the teacher is or was the complete manager of what goes into the education of the students. He analyses, plans, execute the plan and evaluates his plans as well. The question is would there be or is there a change in the role of the teacher? Is the 21st century teacher a manager or a mentor.I perfectly agree with Tony Jones in his blog on this very topic on Sunday 28th august, 2011, that the online courses are gaining acceptance in traditional higher learning institutions. In this regard, the teacher's role as the fount of knowledge and the all-in-all must change to both a manager and a mentor at the same time. The teacher should be in a position to manager a virtual classroom with all the skills he/she can gather and at the same time guiding learners through a collaborative effort to attain academic success. keegan, 1986 stated that 'in evaluating learners, the teacher in the conventional classroom determines the criteria of successful learning and the learner is compelled either with fear, apathy and courtesy. But in the open and distance learning environment, the learner assumes a high degree of autonomy that might be uncomfortable in other educational activities'. This obviously indicates that as we advance into the era of open and distance learning environment, our learners must determine their own mode of individual learning. The teachers role should be a guide, motivator and a facilitator of learning outcome but not someone who takes the centre stage. The teacher should be in position to direct learners to places where they can source for informations and also recognise other discoveries that learners may bring and help them to make meaningful use of such materials.
