More from the Plymouth e-Learning Conference
In a physical educational environment times and methods of access to books and teachers is controlled. This is a concept worthy of further investigation. The physical structures limit access and I guess in some way come about more as a result of the education business model rather than as a specific attempt to deny wider access or participation. The fact that the conference itself took place in a physical space (a brand new multi-million space) demonstrated the lack of access. Plymouth is pretty hard to get to if you live in the North of the country and due to an uncharacteristically early fall of snow even those who were physically close struggled to join in. Clearly there is a lot more to concrete structures than ease of access – new buildings make strong statements about identity and permanence is ways that a virtual space could never do. The dean of the Oxford can show you around physical spaces that underpin the status of his institution – that’s hard to do if you run a virtual university.
