Somerset College

I was reading a Blog that was talking about an education conference in Second Life - the virtual world on Linden. The conference involved universities across North America and Europe. Second Life is already home to some 5,000 education avatars (virtual people in layman terms) who teach student avatars.

The blog was interesting for me as it talks about a subject that we are just starting to implement at the College - Social Media. The College has just created a Facebook page - you too can become a fan of Somerset College, a Flickr page - we are getting some really good statistics on people viewing our photo's especially now the Graduation Day images have been uploaded, a YouTube channel - the Graduation Day video's will soon be uploaded, and also Bebo and Facebook groups for people to share their talents with the world.

But the blog also opens the debate over education in the future. Will there be classrooms with whiteboards in them, will there be libraries - Google are creating an archive of every newspaper ever printed in the world, ever - will there be a need for school buildings to exist as you know them today?

The way that education avatars are teaching student avatars could be a forerunner for virtual classrooms in the future. In a sustainable world this would be seen as the ideal goal - no carbon emissions were spent to bring together the 50 conference delegates from across the world. Tutors could be sat at the end of a computer holding lectures to students across the world.

Could the days of a degree taught in a classoom be numbered? At Somerset College we are teaching an increasing number of students in the work place. We have recently created a degree for Somerset County Council highway workers that utilises iPod Touch handsets as they are nearly always away from the office and unable to download course material.

Social media brings together communities of people - a student who was starting their course at Somerset College created a Facebook group for people who were also starting their course this year. The group were able to get to know each other before the joined the College and share thoughts and feelings, help each other through the enrolment process.

The jury is still out on the 'virtual degree', but anything can happen in the future.After all, email was just a twinkle in Ray Tomlinson's eye more than thirty years ago. Now look how we rely on it in the modern day.

Will these communities of people signify the end of education in the future? Your thoughts and comments are welcome below.