ABSTRACT
The Internet is so popular right now that both isolates, who relate mostly to machines,
and intensely social individuals, who relate mostly to people, are enthusiastic about what
they can accomplish with Internet access. Predictions for the not-too-distant future are
dizzying: “We will socialize in digital neighborhoods in which physical space will be
irrelevant and time will play a different role” (Negroponte, 1995, p. 7). “Everyone must
be both learner and teacher; and the sheer challenge of learning can be managed only
through a globe-girdling network that links all minds and all knowledge” (Perelman,
1992, p. 22). Even schools-highly predictable places where time is almost always
divided into periods, space into rows, knowledge into pieces, and students into tiers-are
embracing the Internet. Many teachers are eager to move ideas back and forth across time
and space, and are enthusiastic about classroom Internet access.