The Library and the Internet

This e-book of On the Horizon, edited by Boria Sax, is devoted to new concepts and innovations in higher education, especially online, that may provide impetus for a paradigm shift. In his introduction entitled "The Library and the Internet", Boria Sax analyzes the ways in which digital technologies may impact the traditional tension between the realm of books and reality. In "The Cafe University", Cornel Reinhart argues that cutting-edge technologies from podcasts to virtual reality do not fit harmoniously with the hierarchic structures of a traditional university. In "Can we Talk?" Carla Payne and Cornel Reinhart argue that Blackboard, the popular Learning Management System, supports a behaviorist rather than a constructivist approach to learning. In an opinion piece entitled "Adaptive Individualization: The Next Generation of Online Education", Nish Sonwalkar proposes a structured system called "adaptive learning", which takes account of individual differences among students. Finally, in an article entitled "Shift Happens", Tom Abeles discusses what the internationalization of education will mean for the United States.