These are exciting and challenging times for education. The demands of a global society have changed the requirements for educated people; we now need to learn new skills continuously during our lifetimes, analyze quickly, make clear judgments, and exercise great creativity. We need to work both independently and in collaboration and to create engaging learning communities. Yet the current educational establishment is not up to these challenge; students work in isolation on repetitive assignments, in classes and schedules fi xed in place and time. Technologic and scientific innovations promise to dramatically enhance exiting learning methods.