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.