ABSTRACT

Santoro's Vision
Education and the Internet

By Leon M. Lederman

The revolution that is Internet, already used by tens of millions of "digitally-haves":  the technology does emerge in part, but only in part, from the marketplace.  The pieces of technology were furnished by Europe (www), by Universities in the US, by a heritage of basic research that had roots essentially everywhere.  But what we have is only the outlines of what one can do with this fabulous technology.  To apply the power of Internet, as it continues to evolve, for the advance of mankind, we must think education.  What glorious possibilities emerge when one examines all the possibilities.  But we have an excellent lesson, in public TV, of a potentially huge new resource for education that, at least in the US, has most certainly worked in the opposite direction, driven simply by greed and lack of public appreciation.

In my talk I will sketch the truly huge possibilities for public education and for public science literacy provided by Internet.  I will outline the advantages to all components of society of greatly increased digital access to the end of education.  The issue, as we learned from TV, and other media, is how do we realize Santoro's vision without allowing the power of Internet to crush our spirits, to stultify our minds with the sheer mass of commercialism?