Information and Collaboration on the Web
Roger B. Blumberg
Scholarly Technology Group
Brown University
Prepared for the Tech Corps Technology Seminar
(March 6, 1997)
http://www.stg.brown.edu/pub/slides/roger/TechCorps.html
Note:
There are a few Plug-ins you'll need to
properly view (and hear) all the materials in this presentation,
and you can view an ascii version
of this talk, listing the URLS for each of the links on this page.
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".
Basic kinds of information for educators on the Web
- There are well-developed libraries of
on-line books,
clearinghouses for
on-line articles, as well
as more news than fits in print.
- Lists of
Education Sites and Resources
are common, as are searching
tools, but there are problems of pointers that point to pointers, not
to mention problems of reliability and quality.
- There are Regional
Educational Laboratories, and
Regional Technology Consortia, funded by the
Department of Education. These are
increasingly important sources of
technology plans and
research about
teaching with technology.
- There are course materials, and webs
built upon topics
as well as primary texts
and interactive electronic textbooks.
- There are "laboratory"
resources, as well as databases
of various sorts, interesting forms of
text retrieval,
and in the last six months the appearance of
"streaming" multimedia presentations.
The opportunity for collaboration
- Before the Web, collaborative systems included
listservs and
internet
newsgroups.
Although these can be
archived on the Web
in useful ways, they do not
necessarily facilitate rich collaborations.
- But the Web also allows for the construction of
collaborative
hypertexts and
interactive tools, as
well as a variety of collaborative
activities.
For example, HyperNews
can be used for Web-based
"conferencing", and
has some major advantages over the listserv and newsgroup model, and simple
data collection systems
are easily implemented (from the technological
point of view at least). Richer
(more expensive) Web-based
document
and project management systems are rapidly evolving as well.
- Finally, integrated Web-Moo systems, like Diversity
University, have begun to be used for important educational activities,
and these systems allow for several varieties of
synchronous and asynchronous communication with document management.
What (I hope) happens now
In order to take full advantage of the sites referred
to in this talk, you'll need the following (free) Web plug-ins:
© 1997 Scholarly Technology Group, Brown University
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