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our nation's students largely still power down when they go to school and power back up as they leave the school grounds to resume their digital lives

Native learners prefer receiving info quickly from multiple multimedia sources while many teachers prefer slow and controlled release of info from limited sources.

Native learners prefer processing pictures, sounds and video before text while many teachers prefer to provide text before pictures, sounds and video.

Native learners prefer learning that is relevant, instantly useful and fun while many teachers prefer to teach to the curriculum guide and standardized tests.”

The Internet is a new medium for human communications, knowledge sharing and learning and a new generation of youth who have "grown up digital" learning best through collaboration and discovery. But our schools and universities teach students using approaches dating back centuries. Foremost is the lecture- the teacher focused, one way, one size fits all model where the student is isolated in the learning process.

Already, major advancements in--and support for--digital textbooks have occurred in Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, Florida, California, and Texas. For example, thanks to a new state law (H.B. 4294) that allows districts to use state funds to buy the technical equipment to support the use of electronic texts or instructional materials, Texas is becoming a leader in using digital resources.

In the fall of 1996, thirty-three students in a social studies course at California State University in Northridge were randomly divided into two groups; one taught in a traditional classroom and the other taught virtually on the Web. The teaching model wasn't changed fundamentally -- texts, lectures and exams were standardized across the two groups. Despite this, the Web-based class scored, on average, 20 percent higher. The Web class had more contact with one another and was more interested in the class work. Web class members also felt that they understood the material better and that they had greater flexibility in how they learned.ii The ultimate interactive learning environment will be the Web and the Net as a whole. It increasingly includes the vast repository of human knowledge, tools to manage this knowledge, access to people, and a growing galaxy of services, ranging from sandbox environments for preschoolers to virtual laboratories for medical students studying neural psychiatry. Today's baby will learn tomorrow about Michaelangelo by walking through the Sistine Chapel, watching him paint, and perhaps stopping for a conversation. Elementary school students will stroll on the moon. Medical students will navigate through your cardiovascular system.