Take a few minutes to listen to my buddy and former colleague Rafi Santo in an interview for Purpos/ed talking about the "purpose of education." Rafi is described as a "new media & learning theorist, educator, technologist, activist, researcher, photographer, meditator, cook, [and] learner." Love it!
Rafi states much more clearly than I ever could an expanded view of education and learning as extending way beyond the classroom, into informal spaces like libraries and museums, online spaces like forums and MMOs, and peer-led rather than just teacher-driven.
Rafi's got a great career ahead of him as an educational scholar and practitioner.