Wired Tower: Perspectives on the Impact of the Internet on Higher Education, The

Transformation

Through

Evolution

The New York Times Magazine highlighted an article

on its cover entitled “Online U—How Entrepreneurs and

Academic Radicals Are Breaking Down the Walls of the Uni-

versity.” The thrust of the story led one to believe that the

Internet could cause the undermining, if not ultimately the

elimination, of some of the nation’s traditional colleges and

universities, replaced by virtual universities in cyberspace.

Just a few months later, in the February 2000 issue of

Mother Jones magazine, a featured article claimed the

screaming headline, “A Campus of One . . . Who Needs Pro-

fessors When the Online University Is Only a Click Away?”

1

chapter

1