First, there's the empowerment of the individual by better access to the existing literature. It's amazing and transformational. Second, we achieve this empowerment through creative tools from word processing to spreadsheets to simulation and model-building tools. We can build faster and push them further. Third, we now have the capacity for consultation and cooperative work enabled by groupware and community networks.
Students can collaborate with peers and obtain input from mentors.
I expect my students to be in touch by e-mail with the authors of the papers that they have read. The authors are usually thrilled to know that somebody cares about their work. The response has been wonderful. And students have become acknowledged in subsequent papers. I get a lot of e-mail myself from unknown students around the world.