Off the road
The time may have arrived to consider seriously the challenge and opportunities provided by dispersed learning environments. For a bunch of years, we (teachers, physicians, lawyers, etc.) have cocooned ourselves into professional development that involved the participants traveling, in fossil-fuel intensive ways (cars and airplanes) to remote sites to enhance our professionalism and credentials. Here in Delaware, we have a relatively benign model, that of teachers traveling to a central location, and engaging in training around curricular units and activities, and reflective discussion about their classroom practice. Suppose that 30 teachers are traveling an average of 100 miles roundtrip, and their vehicles averaged 20 miles per gallon, then at $5 per gallon (it is $4+ as I speak and the per-barrel cost is increasing steadily) the total cost of gasoline is $750. The true cost is greater of course, considering the production of greenhouse gases.
Web2 opportunities are not energy neutral, obviously, but I wonder where the tipping point is?
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