No-one could disagree that around the world governments place increasing emphasis on education, for success in the future information society. Yet problems of space, storage and time in traditional educational systems mean that they cannot adapt fast enough to changing needs. This concludes the first half of the book which sets out the problem. The second half develops the televirtual solution. Chapter 5 describes early ventures in educational cyberspace.
Correspondence courses use postal services to overcome distance.
Educational television was seen as a medium for mass education in South America or, more correctly, mass instruction as it fundamentally one-way communication. Computer assisted instruction can supply the missing interaction. Virtual learning environments at the individual, group and institutional scales can all be supported by these technologies. Chapter 7 describes the history of virtual reality, from text and TV through interactive Computer Generated Virtual Reality with helmets and datagloves providing telemeetings in shared virtual realities. Chapters 8 and 9 describe the notion of the Virtual Class systematically, at the level of the learner, learner and teacher, small group, institution and the globe.