Just science fiction? Perhaps, but as we face the dawn of a new millennium, we also face an uncertain future in the halls of academia. The growing influence of advanced technology and the Internet are changing the face of education, and 50 years down the road, we might see a form of academic instruction never before imagined: a world of long-distance, networked class presentations linked by an advanced Internet or perhaps a multimedia cornucopia of courses accessible from a student's own home. But will the need for a campus itself remain if students can simply download their classes or work entirely online? What do the next 50 years hold for education?

"It's breathtaking when you think about it," says Diane Lee, vice provost for Student Academic Affairs. She sees the future blending technology with a new sense of community, and she sees it happening here at UMBC. "It's a scary thought, but if you look at where technology could take us, why ever go to campus again? You can have virtual classrooms with people from all around the globe. Our challenge is to take these technological advances and use them to build community, not destroy it. Screens and interfaces might be considered a kind of shared humanity, but the campus provides a reason to venture out, respond to education and express something about our humanity."

Lee's vision of a 21st century campus designed to provide access to technology while enhancing opportunities for human interaction within a diverse community is shared by others, including Tim Finin, computer science professor, who also sees a need to preserve what he calls the human factor. Finin suggests that the social aspect of education is essential to the learning process. "Education isn't about transferring content from my mind to your mind."

"It's about motivating students and inspiring them. That's difficult to achieve unless there's a physical presence in the same room. As a professor, I also enjoy the relationships with colleagues and students. I can't imagine just producing training material over the web or video camera."

Jay Freyman, ancient studies professor and director of the Honors College, is another champion of the human factor. "Is not a liberal arts education supposed to prepare humans to be the best humans their potential will allow, to think and express themselves effectively? The minute that electronic interface is intruded into liberal education an element of the non-human is injected. I'm not sure that the ambiguities which pervade the human condition can be properly taught without human-to-human interaction."

Perhaps the real issue is that technology has not yet caught up to educational needs, but it's getting there. "It took 40 years to develop the paper clip," Finin says, "so it may take some time to develop some of the sophisticated things we can so easily imagine, like physical robots or intelligent software agents that can converse fluently in natural language about a wide variety of topics," Finin says. "Fifty years from now any information someone wants will be available on whatever the Internet turns into, but education will still be sending kids to a classroom with a human teacher who can inspire them."

Sending those students to class may also take on new wrinkles, at least according to Freyman. "We may have a great need for education in the future to take the place of work as a socially organizing force. How about paying people to go to college? I know there's a considerable amount of scholarship money given to students now, but that's in anticipation of an economic return to society later on. What if people were paid to go to school simply because it is good for our culture?"

Education will no doubt evolve as we move into the 21st century, taking advantage of the technologies that are even now available, but the need to interact with other people will always remain a vital part of our academic environment. "Some people say artificial realities will approach a point when you can't tell the difference between reality and fantasy," Finin says, "but I don't think that will happen in my lifetime." Perhaps that's wishful thinking, or perhaps Finin is acutely aware of a fundamental need we all share. Nevertheless, educators remain optimistic about the future, envisioning a transformed campus that is technologically sophisticated but still very human.

"We're building an infrastructure for tomorrow," Lee asserts, "incorporating multimedia and interactive technology. We've always stressed interdisciplinarity at UMBC, and that will serve us well in reinventing the university for the new millennium, making it a place that builds the whole person."

Arnold T. Blumberg is editor of the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and Turning Pages and the book editor for EON Magazine.