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IMS Global: We marvel at the ability of the younger generation's ability to multi-task. Is the ability to thrive in this new media a generational thing? Or is it possible to train an old dog new tricks?

BL: Well, you can train some old dogs, but the reason there is a generational gap is because it's hard for old dogs to realize the tremendous changes that have taken place. I have to admit that I'm sort of an old dog. I can hand my niece a Blackberry and she will sit down and use it. I look at it and I need somebody to help me. I was a whiz kid 40 years ago and what we knew then is almost counter-intuitive compared to these kids that I work with today. It's just unbelievable what extraordinary ability they have. It's more important what the students learn than what the teachers teach. If you understand that learning how to learn is really the end game, then you really have something going for you, especially in distance and distributed learning.

We're beyond the point of no return, but there is still going to be a lot of resistance and conflict. There are a lot of issues that have to be sorted out and even learning management systems and all of these mechanisms that carry data back and forth, while they seem improved to us today, are very rudimentary compared to what we're going to have five and ten years from now.

IMS Global: In your most recent book, "Casting the Net Over Global Learning," you address media psychology and the manner by which we teach and learn using many of the new technologies. Looking into your crystal ball, what can we expect in the area of teaching and learning during the next two decades? What changes will we see in online and distance learning?

BL: I think two things. I think graduate professional education is going to become very sophisticated and the leadership programs that teach people who are going to set up these new institutions are going to proliferate. What we're going to have as a result of this proliferation is a whole generation of new leaders. And the leaders are going to have the appropriate components skill, the understanding of technology, the understanding of psychology, the understanding of economics, the understanding of learning theory, to successfully lead their institutions. All the research they do on companies, if you look at business, most new business ventures fail because of either lack of financial resources or poor management skills. These leadership programs in education are turning out people who can run these institutions, that know how to lead them into the future. So I think the graduate programs at the masters and doctorate level are going to thrive because these are self-motivated adult career learners who will see the vision and really be able to do it.

I also think the undergraduate degree programs are going to grow significantly, the degree completion programs, especially those in diversity using media. I've been doing work with Toro University International. I gave the keynote address at their graduation ceremony last August and they had several thousand students, about half of whom were military graduates, and many of those students were stationed in Iraq. I think there are a number of these institutions-the University of Maryland, the University of Phoenix, Fielding Graduate University-that are leading the way, regardless of the controversy with respect to the distance learning institutions, I think there are new educational metaphors, not only the profit-centric universities, but the diversity of the non-profits into distance and distributed learning, the coming of the corporate university, some of which are now accredited. I think it is a tremendously bright future for higher education in this country.