Book readers, podcasts, webcams, cell phone texting platforms, chat rooms, webinars, videos, and open source software will be old school techniques when my grandson is in college in 2030.

Land based classrooms will not be an option. They will be as obsolete as the rotary telephone I grew up with that tethered me to a wall. The cyberspace classroom is being created now. Each new innovation erases an existing fixture in the educational realm.

Cell phones are allowing students the ability to attend webinars, seminars and to download podcasts allowing students to learn in ways that don’t involve paper, books or people.

Courses can be created and students can be grouped according to their interests. Students will have more freedom to pick and choose from a wide range of universities since location will no longer be an issue.

Success will come to students as they set goals that suit their personalities and fill their class load with courses that speak to them.

In an online learning environment, there will be no need for dormitories, buildings, librarians, janitors, parking attendants, football players, cafeterias or bookstores. Some colleges may decide to keep their science and medical departments but the others can go online.

The cyber-classroom will have everything a student needs to be successful. In addition to advisor and counseling forums, a student will be able to have chats with faculty, work groups with students and even create new environments as a way to share information.

Diversity will become a way of life as students from across the world attend class in cyberspace bringing their world view, culture, religion, history and attitude to the table.

The educational model we have today doesn’t work. It costs too much and doesn’t deliver the necessary tools for the graduate.

The Global Web of 195 countries may not even need tools. By the time my grandson is in college, the whiteboard may be replaced by a virtual circuit board giving him access to all existing information.  Put a ring on his finger …and he’s in the Louve looking at original art or he’s back in time watching the pyramids being created or he’s sitting next to John Steinbeck as he writes a novel.

He will tell his children, “There was a time when students had to go to a classroom to learn…”