Will colleges and universities gradually be replaced by 'virtual' education on the Web? It doesn't seem likely, although there is a fascinating discussion of the question on the Templeton Foundation's 'Big Questions' web-site. In 'Edupunk'd', Alan Jacobs reflects on the sliding quality and escalating costs of a traditional college education in the US (similar patterns are emerging in the UK). Could the web offer an exciting alternative: “education beyond classroom walls: free, open-source, vocational, experiential, and self-directed learning'? Well, there are many ways in which the web can support education, but Jacobs concludes it cannot provide an adequate alternative to college. The real-life interactive environment is one in which 'students have daily real-world encounters with faculty and with one another, encounters which, unlike Google searches, are not limited by what you already know to search for. In many cases, those schools also require you to take classes you would never choose on your own, to read books you’ve never heard of, to articulate thoughts about issues so challenging that left to your own devices you’d just go do something else.' I think that is true. The question is whether most existing colleges provide that sort of environment and that sort of challenge.
