Chapter 12: Linking Community Partners: Utilizing Videoconferencing in a Distributed Learning Environment

In 1989, Wurman wrote in his book Information Anxiety that there is more information in one issue of the Wall Street Journal than was available in a lifetime of reading for a person in the seventeenth century (Wurman, 1989). When Wurman wrote this, the graphical interface that we use everyday to help us navigate the World Wide Web had not yet been introduced. Today we take the Internet for granted and are living and learning in an information society that continues to change at a dramatic rate. An example of this dramatic change is evidenced in the publishing industry, in which publishers are using multiplatforms to deliver information. These platforms include the traditional hard copy publication, as well as digital versions of the information ready for podcasts on portable media players (PMP), mobile devices and personal computers; video segments for cell phones (smartphones); and the Internet. With changes like these, the workplace has seen tremendous challenges and a need for continuously retraining workers to keep an up-to-date workforce.