Could Social Networks Replace Higher Ed Institutions?

To contact us Click HERE
by Shelly Blake-Plock

More and more I find myself thinking about the future of teacher preparation and higher ed more generally. I'll be posting at length about this in the coming weeks, but for right now I just want to throw a question out there and get some ideas.

And the question is whether a social network can or will ever be able to grant accreditation, certification, validation, and the like. Maybe I'm just stumbling over my thoughts, but I'm thinking along these lines: we talk a lot about Twitter and PLNs encouraging and making possible great pd, so why not take it to the next level: could professional social networks replace much of what goes on in higher ed professional schools and become in and of themselves accrediting, certifying, "institutional networks"?And would we want that?