Browsing tools such as these help learners explore a huge and rapidly expanding universe of information and gives them the powerful new capabilities for interacting with information. The Clinton-Gore administration came into office with plans for developing a new U.S. high speed electronic network that will vastly extend the capabilities of current Internet services to learners through an information superhighway. The Clinton administration has proposed a federal assistance program to help schools acquire the hardware necessary to access the Internet. The plan would include providing matching grants to schools through the Commerce Department to buy computers and other telecommunications equipment needed to provide access to the Internet and any new information infrastructure. The fiber optic infrastructure in the United States that will provide the backbone of the NII is rapidly expanding through both public and commercial efforts.
Fiber optics are capable of carrying much greater bandwidth technologies such as full motion video.
These lines can provide two-way videoconferencing, online multimedia, and video programming on demand. Virtual communities of learners and educators are already sharing information resources which are growing exponentially over the Internet and will grow even faster with a more extended international information infrastructure. These shared online public databases form the beginning of a comprehensive worldwide knowledge resource that is becoming available to anyone with access to a network gateway. As digital video compression improves CD-ROM, or a similar optical storage format, could replace videotape and laser discs as the most popular medium for distributing full motion video programming, films, and telecourses. Current versions of CD-ROMs hold about 600 mb of digitized information.