INFOBITS 037 (July 1996) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/infobits/infobits-037 IAT INFOBITS July 1996 No. 37 ISSN 1071-5223 About INFOBITS INFOBITS is an electronic service of the Institute for Academic Technology's Information Resources Group. Each month we monitor and select from a number of information technology and instruction technology sources that come to our attention and provide brief notes for electronic dissemination to educators. ========================================================== Mating Flies on the Internet Designing Computer Training Rooms Emma Goldman Papers on the Web ContentsDirect -- Elsevier Science Journal Alerting Service Scientific American -- Then and Now Web Maestro Explorations -- An Online Science Book No Significant Difference? The Virtual Institute of Information ICONnect Lesson Plans A Challenging Web Site IAT Librarian's Links ========================================================== MATING FLIES ON THE INTERNET Virtual FlyLab (VFL), part of the Electronic Desktop Project at California State University at Los Angeles, is an interactive Web site for genetics instruction. Developed by Dr. Robert Desharnais, VFL is being used by dozens of schools, colleges, and universities to allow students to conduct genetic experiments by "breeding" fruit flies over the Web and observing the patterns of inheritance in the offspring. Students can also formulate and conduct statistical tests of hypotheses. Anyone with Internet access and a Web browser can run Virtual FlyLab free of charge. (Other virtual applications are under development.) You can visit the Virtual FlyLab at http://vflylab.calstatela.edu/edesktop/VirtApps/VflyLab/IntroVflyLab.html For more information, contact Robert A. Desharnais, Associate Professor of Biology, California State University at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90032-8201 USA; tel: 213-343-2056; fax: 213-343-2095; email: bob@biol1next.calstatela.edu ========================================================== DESIGNING COMPUTER TRAINING ROOMS "6 Ways to Maximize the Space in Your Computer Training Room," in the July 1996 issue of THE LAKEWOOD REPORT ON TECHNOLOGY FOR LEARNING (vol. 7, no. 7, pg. 6), shares some of Alan Chapman's advice on how to design a computer training room to maximize student learning potential. (Chapman is president of CompuTouch Ltd., a computer consulting company in Canada.) His "Suggestions for Computer Based Presentations," an expanded and more detailed paper covering additional computer presentation tips, is available on his Web site at http://www.tcel.com/~achapman/present.htm For more details, contact Alan J. Chapman, CompuTouch Ltd., 310 Fifteenth Avenue S. W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2R 0P8; tel: 403-245-6620; fax: 403-244-4984; email: achapman@computouch.ca; Web: http://www.tcel.com/~achapman/cthome.htm The Lakewood Report on Technology for Learning is published monthly by Lakewood Publications, 50 S. Ninth St., Minneapolis, MN 55402 USA; tel: 800-328-4329 or 612-333-0471; email: sarahgale@aol.com. Subscriptions are $195/year (U.S.), $205/year (Canada); $215/year (other non-U.S.) For more readings on designing training and presentation areas, see the IAT Information Resource Guide, "Computer Classroom and Laboratory Design: Bibliography" at http://www.iat.unc.edu/guides/irg-03.html ========================================================== EMMA GOLDMAN PAPERS ON THE WEB The Emma Goldman Papers Project, with sponsorship from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission of the National Archives in Washington, has collected, organized, and edited tens of thousands of documents from around the world by and about Goldman (1869-1940), a major figure in the history of American radicalism and feminism. The Emma Goldman Papers Web site is a joint project of the Emma Goldman Papers Project, University of California, Berkeley and the Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE. The site offers reproductions of photographs, correspondence, government documents, telegrams, and handbills relating to Emma Goldman and her contemporaries. In addition, the site provides an extensive index to papers relating to her life held by libraries around the world. Other features include essays, a chronology of her life, and an annotated exhibition of key materials. Check out the site at http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/ The Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE ( http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/ ) contains several other collections of interest, including: The Association of Research Libraries @ SunSITE -- a collection of digital library related documents from ARL. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/ARL/ Current Cites -- the complete searchable archive of this annotated monthly bibliography of selected articles, books, and electronic documents on information technology. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/ ========================================================== CONTENTSDIRECT -- ELSEVIER SCIENCE JOURNAL ALERTING SERVICE ContentsDirect is a free email alerting service for readers of Elsevier Science journals. The publisher's service delivers tables of contents by email approximately two to four weeks prior to a journal's appearance in libraries. In February 1996, the service covered more than 130 journals, and coverage will expand to more journals during the year. To sign up for the service, send email to cdsubs@elsevier.co.uk with the following information: your name, email address, full postal address, and fax number; journal title(s) together with the journal code(s) for which you would like to receive the ContentsDirect service. The information about titles and "journal codes" required may be found from the Elsevier Web page at http://www.elsevier.com Each journal's ContentsDirect email list is moderated by Elsevier Science. You cannot subscribe or unsubscribe directly, but you may subscribe to as many journals' ContentsDirect services as you like. If you prefer Web browsing rather than an email service, check out ESTOC, the Elsevier Science Tables of Contents online service at http://www.elsevier.com/cas/estoc/ This service is updated weekly and gives tables of contents for more than 1,000 Elsevier Science primary and review journals. ========================================================== SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN -- THEN AND NOW "19th Century Scientific American Online" is provided by the University of Rochester's Department of History Web site. Several SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN issues from Volumes 1 and 2 (1845-46), along with the indices of Volumes 3 through 14, are available in a searchable database at http://www.history.rochester.edu/Scientific_American/ Selections from 1996 Scientific American issues are available on the Web at http://www.sciam.com/WEB/index.html ========================================================== WEB MAESTRO "The Web Maestro," an interview with Tim Berners-Lee, the man credited with starting what we call the World Wide Web, is featured in the July 1996 issue of Technology Review (vol. 99, no. 5, pp. 32-40). Berners-Lee talks about his vision of the future of the Web: "as you wander around the Web, your computer will become encrusted with pieces of software necessary to allow you to interact with and represent to you the things that you're reading about. If you happen to be an astronomer and you've been looking at spectra, then spectrum-analyzer software will allow you to manipulate them. If you're a biology student and you download some images of DNA molecules, then the code to send this DNA will come with a little bit of software that allows you to spin it around and break it up. . . . The very idea of software will become a bit more submerged. It will be seen less as a discrete entity that you go out and buy and more as a support to the objects that are part of the information space. The software will move on and off your machine without your having to worry about it." Read the article, along with links to related information, on the Web at http://web.mit.edu /afs/athena/org/t/techreview/www/articles/july96/bernerslee.html Technology Review [ISSN 0040-1692] is published eight times a year by the Association of Alumni and Alumnae of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Subscriptions are available from Technology Review, P.O. Box 489, Mount Morris, IL 61054 USA; tel: 800-877-5230 or 815-734-1116; fax: 815-734-1127; email: trsubscriptions@mit.edu Back issues are available at Technology Review's World Wide Web home page at http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena/org/t/techreview/www/tr.html ========================================================== EXPLORATIONS -- AN ONLINE SCIENCE BOOK Cornell Theory Center's online science book, EXPLORATIONS, is intended to be an interactive journey into the world of computational research for a wide range of viewers. The design of Explorations is based on the concept of an online book with pages incorporating animations, images, and scientific visualizations in VRML format. Start your exploration at http://www.tc.cornell.edu/er96/science96/Explorations/ The Cornell Theory Center (CTC) is a high performance computing and communications center supported by the National Science Foundation. For more information about the CTC, contact Linda Callahan, Cornell Theory Center, Frank H.T. Rhodes Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-3801 USA; tel: 607-254-8686; fax: 607-254-8888; email: cal@tc.cornell.edu; Web: http://www.tc.cornell.edu/ The CTC publishes FOREFRONTS which is available on the Web at http://www.tc.cornell.edu/Forefronts/ For free hard copy subscriptions write to the address above or send email to forefronts@tc.cornell.edu ========================================================== NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE? The "No Significant Difference" Web site provides brief quotations from 218 research reports, summaries, and papers, from 1945 to the present, that compare technology-driven education methods with traditional classroom instruction. The citations and quotations were compiled by Thomas L. Russell, Director of the Office of Instructional Telecommunications at North Carolina State University to demonstrate that using technology to deliver instruction is no better and no worse than other methods. "No Significant Difference" is located at http://tenb.mta.ca/phenom/phenom.html To comment on the site, contact Thomas L. Russell, Director, Office of Instructional Telecommunications, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 USA; email: tom_russell@ncsu.edu ========================================================== THE VIRTUAL INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION The Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) is an independent Columbia University-based research center focusing on "strategy, management, and policy issues in telecommunications, computing, and electronic mass media." CITI has created the Virtual Institute of Information (VII), a Web site covering research and information on the economic, business, policy, and social aspects of telecommunications, cybercommunications, and mass media. The VII is located at http://www.ctr.columbia.edu/vi/. CITI's Web page is located at http://www.ctr.columbia.edu/citi/index.html For more information on CITI or VII, contact Stephen Messer, Assistant Director, Columbia Institute for Tele-Information; tel: 212-854-4222; email: messer@claven.gsb.columbia.edu ========================================================== ICONNECT ICONnect is a technology initiative of AASL (American Association of School Librarians, a division of the American Library Association). It offers school library media specialists, teachers, and students the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to navigate the Internet. The initiative has five components: online courses delivered via email, Curriculum Connections (listservs set up to help AASL members learn more about integrating Internet resources into the curriculum), mini-grants of $500 to encourage the use of Internet resources to develop meaningful curriculum, KidsConnect (a question-answering, help and referral service to kids on the Internet), and the ICONnect Web site and Gopher. Connect to ICONnect at http://ericir.syr.edu/ICONN/ihome.html or gopher://ericir.syr.edu:7070/ For more information about AASL or ICONnect, tel: 800-545-2433 ext 1390; email: iconnect@ala.org; Web: http://www.ala.org/aasl.html For more information about the American Library Association, see their Web site at http://www.ala.org/ ========================================================== LESSON PLANS The Connections+ Web site consists of resources created, maintained, and/or recommended by K-12 educators and is sponsored by the Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL). McREL is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of education for all students. The Laboratory provides technical assistance, research and evaluation support, training, and information services under a variety of contractual agreements to clients in all 50 states and 20 different countries. The Connections+ site received an excellent rating by C-EDRES for its detailed lesson plans, which cover the arts, civics, geography, health, history, language arts, mathematics, and science. Each lesson plan includes course objectives, time expectations, activity sheets, necessary materials, and details where these materials can be obtained. Connections+ is located at http://www.mcrel.org/connect/plus/ C-EDRES is a Canadian site that finds and evaluates education-related Internet resources and makes the information available through a searchable database, an email list, and an anonymous FTP site. For more details connect to the C-EDRES Web site at http://cnet.unb.ca/c-edres/ Media Designs, a publisher for the K-12 education market, is currently seeking lesson plans for publication in their second edition of INTEGRATING THE INTERNET SOURCEBOOK. If you have developed lesson plans integrating Internet technologies that you would like to see published, visit Media Designs' Web site at http://www.earthlink.net/~mediadesigns/Index.html or send email to mediadesigns@earthlink.net Deadline for submission of lesson plans is August 31, 1996. ========================================================== A CHALLENGING WEB SITE Infobits hasn't included links to manufacturer's Web pages before, but International Paper's novel approach to a corporate Web site recently caught our attention. In addition to the usual recounting of corporate facts, figures, and boasts, the site contains "The Challenge," an interactive area in which visitors can learn more about the company by pretending to be in charge of a $20 billion paper and forest products company, answering to over 31,000 shareholders, 88,000 employees, many environmental groups, and countless consumers worldwide, and making decisions for marketing new products. The site includes a moderated bulletin board where players can discuss and compare their decisions with other Challenge visitors. To take part in The Challenge, link to http://www.ipaper.com/triton/triton.html ========================================================== IAT LIBRARIAN'S LINKS "Smart Cards: Readings and Resources," a new publication in our Information Resource Guides series, includes pointers to: papers, articles and press releases; smart card newsletters; links to educational institutions using smart cards; companies providing smart card solutions; and smart card associations. Smart Cards are currently being developed as cash replacements, for identification cards, and to record and store data in a highly-portable medium for industry, government, and educational institutions. The document is at http://www.iat.unc.edu/guides/irg-35.html Thanks to Francois Riou, librarian at Hydro-Quebec, we have a French-language version of "Intranets: Readings and Resources" available at http://www.hydro.qc.ca/fr/biblio/intranet.html The Hydro-Quebec Library's Web site is located at http://www.hydro.qc.ca/fr/biblio/fr.main3.html The original English-language version is at http://www.iat.unc.edu/guides/irg-34.html We have updated our publication, "Associations Involved in Multimedia Development and Related Activities," to include several non-USA associations. The guide contains a list of professional associations that sponsor publications, conferences, workshops, and other activities in the areas of multimedia, computer graphics, computer music, and other digital presentation technologies. The document is at http://www.iat.unc.edu/guides/irg-10.html The IAT is in the process of moving our Web site to a new server and making extensive changes in the appearance and organization of our pages. Part of the reorganization will involve filename changes for some of our bibliographies and deletion of some outdated documents. You can find links to all the current resource guides at http://www.iat.unc.edu/guides/subjects.html (subject listing) and http://www.iat.unc.edu/guides/guides.html (title listing). We have deleted the following publications: "Pharmaceutical Information on the Internet: Selected Sites" "HTML Bibliography" "Samples of Courseware Using Asymetrix ToolBook" "Videos over the Internet" -- some of the material in this guide was incorporated into our newer, more comprehensive document titled "Learning over the Internet: Courses, Curricula, Programs, Syllabi, etc." at http://www.iat.unc.edu/guides/irg-38.html ========================================================== To Subscribe INFOBITS is published by the Institute for Academic Technology. The IAT is a national institute working to place higher education at the forefront of academic technology development and implementation. A partnership between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and IBM Corporation, the IAT strives to facilitate widespread use of effective and affordable technologies in higher education. To subscribe to INFOBITS, send email to listserv@unc.edu with the following message: SUBSCRIBE INFOBITS firstname lastname substituting your own first and last names. Example: SUBSCRIBE INFOBITS Clarence Major INFOBITS is also available online on the IAT's World Wide Web site at http://www.iat.unc.edu/infobits/infobits.html (HTML format) and at http://www.iat.unc.edu/infobits/text/index.html (plain text format). If you have problems subscribing or want to send suggestions for future issues, contact the editor, Carolyn Kotlas, at carolyn_kotlas@unc.edu ======================================================= Copyright 1996, Institute for Academic Technology. All rights reserved. May be reproduced in any medium for non-commercial purposes.