Virtuality and Education

The main common themes of an earlier book in this series, Virtual Learning and Higher Education, were: the extent to which education should become ‘virtual’, the actual cost and value of such innovation and to what degree such education suits its stakeholders. In order to further engage with these important issues a conference was held in Mansfield College, Oxford in September 2003. An edited selection of the papers from that event along with relevant papers that developed as a result of the conference’s subsequent correspondences are the contents of this book.The chapters cover a spectrum of practical issues from ‘at the e-chalkface’ experimentations with virtual technologies via those who consider the consequences of establishing such systems through to those interested in developing long-term strategy or policy in the area.This stimulating and important book is aimed at researchers of topics such as technology-driven education, philosophy, innovation and cultural studies. It is also meant to appeal to anyone with an interest in the ‘virtual’ world of education.