We stand at a crossroads where the technology that offers the means to access huge amounts of knowledge has the potential to take education and training to new levels of integration with human performance. We have the potential to use systems approaches and technology to empower the learner to a degree never before possible.

Next generation performance support systems will need to be as dynamic and complex as the need for learning itself. Learners will expect to receive help, advice or instruction for any subject, at the precise moment it is needed. They will expect the information to be organized and presented in intuitive, useful formats that blend into the sequence of performing tasks. A simulated expert looking over the user's shoulder will become the norm.

Educators must be prepared to re-examine teaching, learning, and instructional design methodologies. None of us knows where these possibilities will lead by the turn of the millennium, but we do know that we have the opportunity to be the leaders in this next wave of exciting opportunity.