The Web and Education Essay -- Teaching Learning Technology Papers

The Web and EducationI read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only sise other people. Six degrees of separation. Between us and everybody else on this planet.(1)John Gu atomic number 18 The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported that Internet researchers at the University of Notre Dame (Barabsi, Albert, and Jeong, 1999) notice that, on average, due to the hypertext links, any two Web pages are only 19 clicks away from each other. The research loosely follows the earlier work of Stanley Milgram, a social psychologist at Yale University. In the 1960s, Milgram demonstrated that any two individuals were linked by five mutual acquaintances. It was this surmise about human relationships that the character Ouisa reflects upon in John Guares famous play Six Degrees of Separation in the quote above.(2) Like the intricate web of human relationships, the Notre Dame researchers 19 clicks of separation theory poses an interesting notion about the potentiali ty of Web pages and their complex inter-relationships. As the number of Web pages grows phenomenally, its not hard to imagine that the information and knowledge you are seeking in your research and education may one day be only five clicks away from where you start surfing on the Web. It is hardly the vast interconnectivity of the Web that makes it an especially intriguing new education medium or tool. Consequently, the Web is emerging as an important and potentially primary theme for any time, any place tuition in the future. Many higher education institutions in the US are already eagerly jumping on the Web bandwagon. According Khan in the preface of a recent textbook on Web-Based Instruction (Khan, 1996)the Int... ...2-bin/printable.cgi Kilian, Crawford (1998). F2F Why Teach Online, Educom Review (p. 31-34). Nardi, Bonnie A. and ODay, Vicki L. (1999). Chapter foursome Information Ecologies. Information Ecologies using Technology with Heart. On-line. Available http/ /www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issure4_5/nardi_chapter4.html Oliver, Ron Herrington, Jan and Omari, Arshad. (1996) Creating Effective Instructional Materials for the World Wide Web. On-line. Available http//www.scu.edu.au/sponsored/ausweb/ausweb96/educn/oliver/ Oppenheimer, Todd. (1997). The Computer DELUSION. The Atlantic Monthly. On-line. Available http//www.theatlantic.com/issues/97jul/computer.htm Ryder, Martin and Wilson, Brent. (1996) Affordances and constraints of the internet for learning and instruction. On-line. Available http//wwcudenver.edu/mryder/aect_96.html