Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
... Suppose, for example, our students could actually be scattered in space and time, engaged in work or service anywhere in the community, the nation, the world, and the "learning community" is online--lectures online, if they are needed, discussion online, collaboration online, libraries online?...
I think you are describing the University of Phoenix. It's an interesting experiment, and it may be the paradigm of the future. But my contract for fall makes it pretty clear I have to show up in the appointed classroom at the appointed time if I wish to collect my paycheck. And for the moment, the vast majority of workers in the world are likewise still punching clocks in one way or another.
Bourdieu calls the university ideal "the scholastic enclosure," a way of insulating students and teachers from the world for which they are nomially preparing.
It used to be called "the ivory tower."
To the extent we allow students to make up their own rules about participation and regard it (in the words of a popular comic strip in this morning's newspaper) as, "basically four years of fully-funded, unsupervised, independent living," I suspect most working folks would still consider it pretty insulted and most definitely "ivory." -- Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain