The use of a computer is an integral part of any serious learning process. Using word processing and spreadsheet applications to complete assignments and create documents is only a basic function of this interactive machine. Connecting to the Intemet and having access to leaming resources undreamt of just a few years ago, empowers a student as never before.

Institutional learning generally consists of courses designed to focus on specific areas of knowledge. Each course supplied an instructor, curriculum, text materials, and library resources. Each of these components in the learning experience has its own logistics problems of time and space. Students went to the classroom or library and carried books and materials between both in an attempt to access the information they needed to meet their educational goals. However, that situation is now permanently altered.

The Internet empowers learners as no other factor in education ever has. The virtual access to the academic resources of universities and libraries from all over the world with a mere mouse click has changed everything. No longer are individuals limited to the resources of their local circumstances. The boundaries of time and space have been breached. Real learners are no longer at the mercy of a restricted set of parameters governing their acquisition of knowledge.

If we're honest with ourselves we realize that we have access in this country to information by merely turning on a TV, going to a library, or visiting a favorite bookstore. The process of learning is the process of living. We are taking in information with each breath we take. We are the ones who determine what we know and how much we know. Therefore, life and learning are directed by the choices that we make. The computer has empowered the individual only if they are self-motivated and self-disciplined.

Our quest for knowledge begins with our attitude towards learning and just how much we are willing to do in order to become the person we want to be. The business of everyday existence is a mundane process that involves the comfort of sameness and the ease of knowing what to expect. Each of us generally hopes that our daily life unfurls with only minor fluctuations in its normal rhythm.

Our friends are comfortable because they are known quantities and we can carry limited expectations as to their actions. Unfortunately, this world of sameness does not provide a medium for growth for the individuals living in a perpetual repetition of days that seem to be scripted almost exactly the same. When we come to realize these circumstances we begin to sense that there must be much more to our world than the constant talk of people, places and things. The world is not all nouns. There must be more to life than this limited number of possibilities and the small mindedness that accompanies always discussing only one's immediate circle of friends and their actions.

The missing ingredient in the limited world of mundane existence is an idea. It is said that small minds discuss people, mediocre minds discuss things, and great minds discuss ideas. The truth is that unless we have exceptional friends who are interested in broadening their horizons and increasing their knowledge our daily learning experiences are repetitious and empty of anything other than the miniscule aspects of existence. There is much here to comfort us, but I'm afraid not much to improve us.

All of this can be changed if we come to the realization that this situation can only be corrected by us. Our world is as limited as each of us allows it to be. Living in a small community is to some an excuse for not knowing anymore than what your neighbors are doing. After all what kind of cultural and intellectual experiences would a rural area offer? Actually, that question can only be answered by us. Each of us chooses our experiences each day. We have access to all sorts of possibilities which we sometimes don't have the courage or ambition to pursue. Logistics is a major problem because we might have to get in the car and travel, or make arrangements ahead of time. We can use these things as an excuse, rather than a reason, for not doing more with our lives, or curse the town and circumstances we find ourselves in. The truth is we are just not putting forth the effort necessary to change anything. But now all of that is different.

For a very small price, in monetary terms, we can have "magic boots" that can virtually transport us to all of the places we previously felt were inaccessible. We don't have a logistics problem anymore once we have a communication line to our computer. The world can now come to our doorstep. We can be exposed to ideas and information that can enrich our mundane existence when we choose.

There has never been a time in history to equal this one. The limitations of place and time have been breached. We are no longer the prisoners of our locations. Actually, we never have been if we are honest, but now our excuses for not changing our circumstances are becoming more difficult to sustain. We are empowered as never before to determine our own intellectual fates. We can learn what we want when we want. We can do all of this from the comfort of our homes, or wherever a connection puts our computer on the Net. Think of the endless possibilities for personal improvement!

Of course, the downside to all of this is that with all of these resources at our beck and call we can once again make some bad choices. As with television, there are many great learning channels that we can choose to watch, or we can seek brainless entertainment to amuse ourselves. These are our choices and we need to mark them well.

It has been my experience that most people consider their lives very busy and that they are in need each day of some release from their jobs and the daily grind. Our media establishment has supplied many opportunities for amusement and some for intellectual stimulation. Unless you have a job that tests your intellect each day you are probably bored with the repetition of sameness and are looking for something to divert you attention. All of this is understandable, but consider this. The word EDUCATION to the early Greeks, from whom we Westerners take our basic culture, was associated with leisure. They felt that after a day of working to satisfy their basic material needs they needed to do something to improve themselves. They tried to make their entertainment constructive. Cultural experiences coupled with new ideas were a staple of their "off hours." These were not empty hours to be filled until they were back at their jobs, but valuable time to seek meaningfulness. Interesting notion, is it not?

How do we spend our time? What choices do we make if we could watch something on television that is educational versus our favorite sitcom with the same hackneyed plots? What are we after in our lives and how do we intend to get it? A fool is said to be someone who keeps doing the same thing day in and day out hoping for something different to occur. It would seem that change is something we must institute and that it must be an act of will.

The means to changing one's life lies in what one knows and can act upon. Though people will not admit it, we are most of the time our own worst enemies in that we cannot bring ourselves to do what we know we ought. There are lots of excuses for not realizing one's goals, but they are getting more difficult to sustain as access to educational resources improves. However, we can get on the Net and do the same thing that we have done with television. The Internet offers a world of educational resources, but it also offers incredible diversions that make it as ineffectual a learning medium as does TV when bad choices are made. If we can bring ourselves to commit to self-improvement, then our computer can become the gateway to our future.

I have offered you this philosophical treatise on self-improvement because it is important that your recognize that the most important ingredient in your educational development is you. All things will follow depending on the choices you make. If you don't have a computer and an Internet provider, then work to get one. The costs are no longer prohibitive and you must commit to the task you have set for yourself. I will require things of you that make your access to Internet necessary. You will be able to use other resources, of course, but better that you have access when you need it.

The vision statement of learning institutions inculcates the notion that they will attempt to create self-learners who can develop according to their own goals because their education has empowered them to become whatever they want. The keys to this idea are access to information and the ability to makes correct choices. Though the idea of correct choices is the more difficult of the two, the first is certainly realizable. Make yourself as knowledgeable as you can about how to get at the information you need. The description of an educated person in based not only on what they immediately know when faced with a problem, but that they know where to find an answer. It will be the task of this Life Science course to help you begin to perceive the world through the paradigms of biology. This is a daunting task in such a short period of time and will therefore require that you take adavantage of outside resources to enrich your classroom experiences.

Your Assignment Page includes your chapter reading assignments and laboratory experiences. These are the institutional mandates that will lead to testing and eventual course credits. However, take advantage of all of the other resources you find on this site that will deepen your experience and understanding. Remember that the success you find in life is in direct proportion to what you understand about life. Take advantage of all that you can.