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effectively and persuasive. The lessons to be learned by Pierre Salinger's mistake are

more important than what we may have learned if his statements were provably true.

The least that can be said about the World Wide Web is: it's a cultural

phenomenon. In itself, this is a powerful statement. Culture (the culture of the Web is

world wide) is at the center of educational goals. Students participate in their culture,

contribute to their culture, inherit a culture system. The Web can be used by educators

to foster all of these goals.

To insure that educators keep this in perspective, it is important to understand

that the Web is just a first prototype of a future Information Network. The Web is absent

many important technologies such as collaborative systems, many to many

connections, full motion video, universal access, authoring environments,

authentication, pay-per-access accounting, and more. Some of the needed

improvements are highly technical in nature, some just involve improvement in user

interfaces--all are currently being addressed. Ten years time is a reasonable

expectation for fully working Information Networks. This could be the birth of an

Information Age, education the only industry, learning the only occupation, educators

the most highly valued citizens.

How do we know? The truth about the World Wide Web is, substantiatively,

unimportant. What is important is the methodological process. Already, schools

everywhere in the US are moving to integrate computers, the internet, and the Web

into everyday curricula. Unfortunately, this decision seems to be based more on

political expedience than on mythology. This is not the first, nor will it be the last, time

in American that we move (West) before we knew what is there.

My gut feeling is we will travel the right road. My goal is to contribute the the

mythology.