19.6 FUTURE ITS RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
What is possible for the future includes ample computing resources for every student ... tapping electronically many resources outside the classroom. It includes the idea of a personal factotum that could serve as a knowledgeable intermediary ... to bridge the gap between the classroom and the external world ... Virtual field trips linking libraries and museums will have their holdings available in electronic (or photonic) form ..." (Nickerson, 1988, p. 312).
We've seen where ITS research and development has been, and we've discussed a few of the systems that have been evaluated in controlled studies. We'll now examine some of the conceivable futures for these systems. Given the diversity of researchers in the area, and the great differences among learners, there will be, in reality, many different streams of research co-occurring and the most likely future is probably a composite of them all.