Panopticon of Virtual Classroom: Evolution on Teacher–Student Relationship in Distance Education

Are educators the conquerors or refugees from colonialism? In recent years, digital tools are actively used to teach online. However, today’s young students, known as Generation Z, are already familiar with the established order, solidarity and all kinds of techniques in the virtual world. One who wants to use traditional classroom authority to rule this democratic and free online world is just like a mantis trying to stop a chariot. This research uses action research and participatory observation to explore the conflict and mutual compromise between the teacher–student relationship from classroom to online platform. This research points out a few common issues of distance teaching today, including: students become pure listeners, are distracted easily, have lost the space perception, etc. Finally, three principles are proposed for building a metaverse classroom: (1) redefining the self-identity of teachers and students, (2) re-establishing the teaching order, (3) characteristics that the virtual classroom should have.