Modes of learning have changed dramatically over the past two decades—our sources of information, the ways we exchange and interact with information, how information informs and shapes us. But our schools—how we teach, where we teach, who we teach, who teaches, who administers, and who services— have changed mostly around the edges. The fundamental aspects of learning institutions remain remarkably familiar and have done so for something like two hundred years or more.

If we are going to imagine new learning institutions that are not based on the contiguity of time and place—virtual institutions— we have to ask, what are those institutions and what work do they perform? What does a virtual learning institution look like, who supports it, what does it do?