In their everyday lives, individuals
do not have a teacher at their side to direct them in their acquisition of new
information. One of the roles that we need to perform as educators, then, is to
teach students to find and learn information on their own or in concert with
their colleagues. The online environment fosters self-motivated education.
Students direct their own use of Internet links, search engines, discussion
boards, chat, e-mail, and other media. While such resources cannot guarantee
student initiative, they establish a framework that gives precedence to the
autonomy of the learner.