ABSTRACT
Introduction One of the greatest challenges for all tutors in recent years has been attempting to keep abreast of the accelerating pace of technological change and developments. Government reports in both the United Kingdom and the United States have singled out the spread of the Internet as the most rapid technological development we have ever experienced (easily outstripping the introduction of radio and television) (for example, see US Congress, 2000). We have seen computers shrink in size, become more affordable and more reliable; and it is clear that this trend is not going to stop. Gilbert (2000) has argued that the safest prediction is that ‘in the next decade at least one major new trend in the educational use of information technology will not have been predicted by anyone highly respected in fields closely related to education or technology’. Already some US universities ensure that all their students and staff have laptops they can plug into the university network wherever they are, and at all times of day and night; whilst a few pioneering universities are experimenting with ‘wireless’ computers, using radio waves on a campus, allowing even more flexibility. There clearly remain a number of technical problems about the reliability of systems, and ensuring equality of access to the technology is an issue. But, as William Gibson, the inventor of the term ‘cyberspace’, has stated: ‘The future is here. It is just not evenly distributed’ (Gibson, 1999).
