Don Tapscott, the man U.S. Vice-President Al Gore dubbed one of the world's leading cybergurus, warned universities that they could be in for some stiff competition if they don't embrace the electronic revolution.

        Tapscott, an alumnus from the class of '66 and chair of Trent's fund-raising campaign, was speaking to a computer science class Sept. 24 in Wenjack Theatre. His message echoed one he had given earlier that day to the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce.

        His presentation --sage on stage -- was the kind of teaching format the Trent-trained prognosticator says is old-fashioned. If universities don't want to be left in the dust, they better get wired, he warned. "Institutions that stick their heads in the sand and deny changes are in severe danger of becoming irrelevant."

        Some educational institutions are working hard to reinvent themselves for relevance, he said. But most continue to teach in traditional ways -- drill and spill, sage on stage, transferring information from lecturer to passive student. Technology can free teachers from the burden of data transmission, said Tapscott, so they can do their real job -- motivate students and facilitate learning. He warned of a potential crisis "if we don't take some radical steps to change schools."

        Kids these days have grown up digital (the subject of his new book, Growing Up Digital, The Rise of the Net Generation out this month) and turn on a computer with the same casualness their parents open the refrigerator. In the click of a mouse, they can look up something on Encarta, the digital version of an encyclopedia, and save themselves a trip to the library.

        The way we learn, share information, do business is being transformed by electronic technology, he says. This is an age when brain is valued over braun and people must constantly learn to keep up. They will do it at work, at home, in non-traditional ways.

        Some universities already offer on-line courses. Children have discovered the joys of interactive computer programs that make learning fast and fun and instant. "It's the most exciting, alive learning environment I've ever seen."

        The author of Paradigm Shift predicts the end of broadcasting -- even narrowcasting -- and newspapers. He says agents and middlemen will disappear (a process called disintermediation) as producers and consumers communicate directly via the Internet. He has already coined the interaction between them -- prosumption. Buying and selling, designing and manufacturing are going "virtual" -- virtual banks, virtual stockyards, virtual car lots. You don't have to leave your monitor to buy and trade.

        "It is a time of great opportunity as well as a time of great peril." Information technology has transformed the world as radically as the Gutenberg press did six hundred years ago.