Everything is different on the Net. That's my constant theme, and many of you have heard this from me before. The Trails exercise is a perfect example. Here we have a perfectly ordinary assignment (do supplemental readings and be prepared to discuss) that becomes something more when transferred to the Net.

This is in part simply because of a change in lighting. The live classroom is such a familiar place that we accept many of its conventions, and even when we innovate we cannot see the full implications of the novelty.

On the Net, though, everything is different, and so we are more sensitive to novelty. Unsure of anything, we are prepared to examine everything.

But the differences of the Internet are more than mere tricks of the light. There really are new dynamics, especially those associated with the asynchronous nature of the communication. While these differences present challenges, they also open up opportunities not to be found in the live classroom.

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