And Classroom Text as WWW
Quinebaug Valley
Community College
Danielson, CT, 06239
The following links connect to descriptions of examples of the use of various internet resources in the context of introductory anthropology and sociology courses. Eventually these links will also include connections to actual intenet sites upon which instructors can draw for curriculum development. These internet resources could just as easily and effectively be applied to other course areas.
The title,"World Wide Web" (WWW) is used to name the network of internet resouces accessible mainly through the use of programs like Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer; these programs are run on individual computers, and bring one out onto the internet through mostly "point and click" operations.
"The Web" is the vast linking of documents throughout the world that exist on computers linked by the internet. This linking of documents is done in a form known as "hypertext," which means that within any given document (such as this text you are reading) there are words, menu choices, pictures etc. that have been set up to "link" the reader to other documents on command. When you "click" on one of these links, you are either jumping to another part of the same document, or your are jumping to another document; the "other" document you jump to may be in your own computer, or even on a computer half-way around the world!
It is easy to create "web documents," especially if one already has the basic skills of typing and word-processing. Things such as classroom/lecture notes, assignments, and related hand-outs for example can be put into "text format" on computer disk, then readily turned into a "web document" with some simple formatting. In the process an instructor can turn such notes and hand-outs into documents that link students to museum sites around the world, important papers produced by colleagues, library catalogs near and far, and a vast selection of other "web sites" to be explored.
(Click here for an example...)
As students and instructors begin to learn the basics of web-page making they can also begin to create their own documents and text, to become creative participants in the WWW rather than passive browsers. In this way the classroom itself can become an active part of the vast collaborative network of the World Wide Web!
