WWW Notes for SMART Teachers

Roger B. Blumberg
Scholarly Technology Group
Brown University - January 11, 1997

http://www.stg.brown.edu/pub/slides/roger/SMART.html

The Web:a system of distributed hypermedia.

• distributed because the "documents" reside on computers throughout the network.
• hypermedia because the "documents" are often (though not always) in a variety of digital media formats, linked to one another, and accessible within a single "browse".

Typical Web documents and resources

• Much of the material on the Web is clearly publicity
• Lists of Education Sites and Resources are common, as are searching tools
• There are course materials, and webs built upon topics as well as primary texts.
• There are "laboratory" resources, though whether or not they are just "cookbook" labs in digital form is sometimes a worry.

Types of Web Publication

• On Line Books (at Carnegie Mellon University), which includes an enormous collections of old mathematics books at Cornell.
• Classic Papers in Genetics (at FHCRC)
• Eisenhower National Clearinghouse, for K-12 mathematics and science teachers
• The on-line edition of Science, at AAAS
• Databases of various sorts.

1. The opportunity for collaborative work

• Before the Web, collaborative systems included listservs and internet newsgroups
• HyperNews can be used for web-based "conferencing," and is currently for discussions at Hypermedia, Teaching and Technology, at STG.
• The Web allows for the construction of collaborative hypertexts and tools, as well as a variety of collaborative activities.
• Finally, integrated Web-Moo systems, like Diversity University, have begun to appear.

2. Where we can go from here.

• Distributed curricula for a variety of content areas, grade levels, and learning styles. (You can see and hear Kenneth Foote's HT&T96 presentation right here.)
• Dynamic, interactive, and automated "textbooks".
• Annotated resource catalogues, by and for teachers: a call for SMART teacher-reviewers.

© 1997 Scholarly Technology Group, Brown University
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