Today it’s a place, a building, a community – a noun.

The Internet may change all that.

A true story involves a woman in a Waco, Texas, record store when a tornado hits. Records fly everywhere. Seemingly oblivious, she walks to the cash register, pays for her selections, walks out – and faints.

The Internet has created our “new world disorder.” It’s the fastest growing human-machine creation ever. And nobody’s in charge.

Thomas Friedman, in his insightful and delightful book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, attempts to explain globalization.

Today’s real global power, he says, is no longer nations.

It’s the “electronic herd.” The folks who use the Internet to move their multi-trillion-dollar investments from country to country – leaving prosperity, or poverty, in their wake.

And that’s the least of it.

Many of us respond to the whirlwind called the Web like the woman in Waco.

At first oblivious. Then overwhelmed. Now reflective. What are the implications of this array of changes that rival those of printing, electricity or automobiles?

It’s hard to grasp the concept of “orders of magnitude.” A 50-percent-off sale we understand. But a 99-percent-off sale (two orders of magnitude)?

• Think of all the items in your home that were formerly heavy industrial equipment. VCRs, computers, scanners and copiers, satellite dishes, video cameras, CD burners.

• Iowa City used to have three TV channels. Now there are hundreds available by cable or satellite.

• Iowa City had a great public library 50 years ago. At that time the Library of Congress was the ultimate – and unavailable. Today it’s a mouse click away – and but a small beginning.

Upon hearing of the Maine-to-Texas telegraph, an underwhelmed Henry David Thoreau observed, “the issue is whether they have anything significant to say.”

That’s the question for education. Microsoft used to advertise, “Where do you want to go today?” Our students can “visit” any country, organization, library or school in the interconnected world. Where to go?

A lot of people have been asking that question recently. Yesterday the U.S. Army began offering college degrees globally from its “University Access.”

The U.S. Department of Education has just published, “e-learning.” The Web-Based Education Presidential Commission’s report, The Power of the Internet for Learning, is online. The Virtual High School offers 87 courses to a consortium of 112 schools in 29 states. Former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett just started another K-12 online curriculum.

Our district contracts with Classroom Connect. It bridges the gap between the Internet’s vast resources and teachers’ need for curriculum materials and links to what's relevant.

Two years ago some district teachers and students visited Charles Darwin’s Galapagos Islands. What an educational benefit! But at a cost of a week and $3000 each.

Classroom Connect offers “virtual field trips” – including the Galapagos.

Or ask the Google search engine. Up come 149,000 Galapagos sites in 9/100th of a second. Less time, no money.

Web sites aren’t the equivalent of being there. But 99 percent of America’s students can’t go.

Their choices are between touring some of those 149,000 sites or seeing nothing at all.

Incidentally, Google also offers 53,000 rainforests. Unlike Coralville’s, they’re all free and don’t lower our state’s water table.

That’s only the beginning.

• Southeast Junior High has “Virtual Ed” on the Web for students, parents and teachers.

• Our district is one of six in Iowa developing an inventory of digital imagery for teachers.

• More staff development opportunities are coming.

Except that “school” now seems to be a verb.

Nicholas Johnson is an Iowa City School Board member. More information is available on his Web site www.nicholasjohnson.org.