Bringing the Internet and multimedia revolution to the classroom

Besieged by the distance learning revolution, many senior university and college administrators are asking: how can traditional classroom teaching be modified in order to keep pace with the rapidly evolving high-tech marketplace for higher education? The Faculty of Social Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel launched a three-year pilot project to use multimedia and distance learning tools to improve classroom teaching. There are initial signs of success for this unique project that knits together powerful new multimedia infrastructure, WWW course sites, and electronic “smart classrooms.” This article proposes nine political guidelines for university administrators who seek to advance similar pilots but who also fear that faculty members will oppose such revolutionary projects.