Suddenly, more and better access to books was essential to the learning process, forcing colleges to make their first major investments in books and libraries. As the president of a highly selective liberal arts college, I find this piece of history particularly relevant. A hundred years ago, a change in the way students were learning required a massive new investment in books. Today, I see another dramatic shift in learning and a corresponding new investment - this time in airplane tickets to take both students and faculty wherever in the world learning can be most concentrated and productive. Today we are educating a generation that has never lived in a world without TV remote control, drive-up ATMs, and Cable News Network streaming Somalia straight into their living rooms.
Immediacy is a hallmark of all their interactions.
They came of age after the collapse of Communism, so they cannot fathom a time when huge parts of the world were off-limits to Americans. With the multiple screens of the personal computer, they have learned to operate in different spaces at the same time. They take for granted that will be able to go anywhere and do anything. Recently I spoke with three students, all in their last year of college. The first, a native of Calcutta who aspires to be president of India, was about to leave for Brazil to gather econometric data for his comparative study of development in Brazil and India.