…yet fuel still in excess of 130p per litre. Picking up on Martin’s Leicester Response I couldn’t help but ponder what the WEA look like when petrol costs £400 a litre.
Could this mean an era of hyper local provision, delivered within walking/public transport distance? (This presupposes that public transport is underwritten but the government)
Could this mean an increase in organising from home?
Could this mean that administration is decentralised and undertaken from administrators’ homes?
Could this mean that tutors will not travel to teach?
Could this mean that learners will not travel to sessions?
Could this mean a serious transfer to online learning, either virtual learning environments (asynchronous learning) or video conferencing (synchronous learning) ?
Could this mean an end to face to face meetings as no one could afford to travel to meet?
Could this mean less paperwork because postage will become prohibitively expensive – (The UK postage charges go up on Monday 6th April 2011)
Could this mean that 12 learners on a register would become a thing of the past? – More like 50 learners engaged in e-learning of some kind?
Who knows? Fuel prices are creeping up. The picture above will evolve and not pop up ready formed. We will adapt and survive. One thing is for certain, when fuel is £400 per litre the world will be a very different place to what we see when we look out of the window, and judging from the road works I can hear as I write this, it will sound different too.
Of course, there was no petrol in common use in 1903!
Alan Carter-Davies
Mel
andreagewessler
Clare Davies
