“It is difficult to predict what effect all this (The Internet) will eventually have on education but it could be profound. It must be questionable whether you need three years to complete a PhD when you have instant access to so many archived books as a result of Google’s book-scanning programme. The limiting factor is not technology but access. Those who haven’t got broadband or a good smartphone are cut off from the outset. And, much more important, if you don’t have the motivation then all the aids in the world won’t help. But, increasingly, the basic street-wise skills people will need during the digital revolution may more easily, and certainly more quickly, be learned from the People’s University of the Internet than from an academic institution.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/dec/02/youtube-peoples-university-internet