ABSTRACT
Using technology to enable learning through the creation and communication of information is a time-honored tradition. More than 5,000 years ago, the invention of writing spurred the first information revolution, making it possible for one generation to accumulate information and communicate with the generations that followed it. When printing was invented about 500 years ago, the second information revolution began, marked by mass distribution of the printed word. Just 50 years ago, the invention of computers ushered in the third information revolution, making it possible to transform raw data into structured information, to transform that information into knowledge, and to transform knowledge into action using intelligent software agents and robots.
