This week's Economist contains a special report on "digital nomadism," the ability to work, and to connect to family or friends, from just about anywhere. When Coburn Ventures, a consulting firm, first started up, its to-do list was as follows: 1) get BlackBerries, 2) start contacting clients, and 3) find office space at some point. Eight months later, the seven-employee firm decided that it didn't actually need office space; everyone enjoyed the freedom and autonomy of nomadic work.
Twenty years ago, few people would have guessed that businesses could be successfully run without offices. Nonetheless, evermore companies, such as Coburn Ventures, are doing just that.
One can assume that education will go this route, especially private providers that are actively competing against one another for students. Who wouldn't want their kids to attend a virtual school that saved tons of money on facilities and reinvested those dollars into hiring the best teachers and giving students a lot of personal attention?
Education Sector's Bill Tucker penned for The Gadfly several weeks ago a nice overview of how virtual education is aiding high-school reform. (Bill based his article on a report he wrote last summer.) Virtual education is expanding, and as it does, it's taking sundry different shapes. Twenty years from today, will we perhaps have entered an age of educational nomadism?