slowness of change, diffusion

This is almost a sociological or historical question. A change is taking place in so far as communication is concerned especially in areas where communication over distances usually plays an important role, e. g. news delivery, access to goods that are not locally available. there are new forms like online auction, no, this is not even new, that existed before, but because of universal access it has a different appeal. and it works in the area of economy where you have individuals able to sell and buy. every one has the same right, well, this is ideally spoken, taking aside social criticism. on the other hand in educational institutions you do not have an equal rights situation: the teacher has the right to determine the setting of class, the teacher is allowed to speak at any time, many more characteristica. the learner on the other hand ist dependant on the actions of the teacher. today with access to other educational resources via the internet the learner has the possibility to make another experience, the learner gains much more autonomy. i wonder if there are many teacher who come into the classroom to ask, hey learners, what do you want to learn today and how do you want to learn it.
i think as long as those roles are not reflected and at least a little bit changed a large gap remains between institutional education and the outside world of networks. it would also mean that teachers themselves start networking.
on the other hand one could say as a teacher i do not care about how my learners organize there learning if they use social software or meet face to face, its there business. i cannot prescribe what they use for learning. it is not predictable because for every learner this is different. i would say this is partial autonomy that existed before the internet.