To the proponents of online learning, the Web speaks a various language. To some, it's a repository of fixed knowledge, bricks of knowledge waiting to be packaged and sold intact. To others such as Peter G. Fairweather and Andrew S. Gibbons, "(t)he Web provides collaboration and communication." The Web can comfortably encompass both models of knowledge (the constructivist and the Cartesian), yet most educators, myself included, see the battle lines forming.

In August of 2000, the Board of Higher Education of Massachusetts entered into an agreement with the Harcourt College Online Learning Center, to develop and administer a statewide virtual college which will be able to grant Associates and Bachelors degrees in the near future. Harcourt College's parent company describes itself as a "major participant in the growing global markets for education, assessment, training and professional information." It specializes in the "delivery" of content, most often via WebCT, using Harcourt textbooks.

If the Web and its prestigious educational tools such as WebCT have the capability of both content distribution and collaborative learning, why can't these models of learning co-exist on the Web? The answer is the convergence of two forces: the market force and the political force. First, there is little profit in the interactive model of online learning. Second, the Massachusetts political climate is causing a rush to privatize online learning (and undermine the pubic educational system). These forces come together and threaten constructivist virtual education, and I assert that teachers must take action to overcome the stasis in knowledge that will follow.