sibling and the Web
Roger Debreceny, Centre for Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Business and Computing, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW 2480 Australia Email: rdebrece@scu.edu.au
Allan Ellis, Faculty of Education, Work and Training, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW 2480 Australia Email: aellis@scu.edu.au
Keywords: World Wide Web, publishing, libraries, government and community information, teaching and learning, indexing, management, integration
Southern Cross University commissioned its Web server in March 1994 which at that time was within the first six or seven hundred servers in the world. This created debate on the electronic forums within SCU about the potential for teaching and learning. This debate was the impetus for AusWeb95 which represents the first opportunity for the "Australian Web community" to come together to share their experiences and to speculate on the future of the Web.
The papers presented at AusWeb95 represent a significant contribution to what is an emerging and rapidly developing technology. Having been involved in the receipt of abstracts, their refereeing and now with the publishing of the final papers in network, CD-ROM and paper based versions we have been struck by the diverse perspectives presented.
After some discussion and debate we have identified ten "clusters" of issues. This categorisation is, of course, only our personal view and readers of the proceedings may well see other clusters. Indeed, given the relatively early stage of the development of this technology it is not surprising that there were very few papers which touched on the commercial implications of the Web. No doubt this will be remedied at AusWeb96.
Galante and Forsyth [HREF 3] make the point that the La Trobe library in which they work was not interested in "publishing per se" when they came to the Web, but in "pubnetting" ( Fillmore [HREF 4] which they see as offering "many advantages over traditional publishing ... because the product is immediate, global, dynamic, manipulable and multimedia". In a challenge that we hope many at AusWeb95 will agree with, Galante and Forsyth [HREF 3] state that "an electronic product need not be simply a print product, it needs to exploit features made possible by the new medium" (emphasis added). A number of papers point, for example, to the use of Web forms and interaction with external programs which go some way to moving on from the paper based paradigm. AusWeb96 will be taking up this challenge by offering delegates the opportunity to make conference presentations as well as submit formal academic papers.
Hardy et al [HREF 5] report bringing the Internet into the Victorian State library system by providing free public access terminals in public libraries. They see this as creating a "rich virtual information environment" (emphasis added) which is fundamentally empowering of the community as it not only allows the community to access information as libraries may have done in the past but also enable the community to publish on the network. For AusWeb95 delegates who have not seen the Victorian State Library, it is difficult to think of a public building in Australia that looks more like a bank with a massive vault at its core.
The other three library papers show how a large library at a single research establishment can truly exploit the technology ( [HREF 6]); how a rural university can satisfy its far flung student population ( [HREF 7]) and provide a multinational, multilingual library service ( [HREF 8]).
sibling and the Web
Because of the very low cost of networked information delivery systems can be specifically designed for very small groups. Palmer, Cumpston and Jones [HREF 16] report on the development of an anaesthetic web site aimed at a total population of a couple of hundred medical students and specialists. The first goal was to provide the target population with flexible access to information in terms of time and location. The second goal will "allow the integration of WWW technology into our weekly teaching schedule as a tool to enhance the quality of service we deliver".
Marriott [HREF 17] describes the teaching electronic journal project [HREF 18] which is a collaboration between universities in Australia, Sweden and the United Kingdom where the aim is "to allow information management students to conduct research into, and experience first hand, the operation of a fully functional electronic journal". This shows how the Web can be used to facilitate international educational experiences within a traditional teaching semester.
Similar approaches can be taken to research although Putterill [HREF 19] issues a cautionary note by referring to the need to implement "a 'sociotechnical' package comprised of (1) hardware, (2) software, (3) organisation-ware and (4) people" if the Web is to be successful.
Despite the fact that some educational institutions (eg Deakin University as reported by Martin [HREF 20]) are well advanced in the integration of interactive on-line courseware into their teaching programs although they see themselves as using the "Model T Ford of the new generation of educational multimedia".
Martin concludes:
What it does represent however is a leap forward in the methodologies and technologies by which students could in the near future obtain an education without the home or workplace. As such the package highlights how the teacher and the learner can be freed of the requirement to meet at regular times to exchange and disseminate knowledge when this can be done using electronic delivery and communication systems rather than verbal or physical ones.In this, Martin is pointing to a practical implementation of the ideas of educators such as Bates (Bates, 1993; Bates, 1994).
Mosaic and Netscape are based on hypertext and rely on the users ability to make informed decisions about where next to browse. They underlie a constructivist approach where the learner accepts their control of their learning. If learning is facilitated by the nod-elink structures in the learner, then this needs to be reflected in the construction of the knowledge base according to the way learning takes place in the domain.Eklund goes on to suggest a number of possible ways of learning in hypermedia environments in general and the Web in particular. These issues are of importance to all Web users and developers and are addressed in other papers at the conference on good Web page design.
It is interesting that Riddle, Nott and Pearce [HREF 22] note that a third of the nearly thirty participants in their recent workshop at Melbourne University on "Teaching and Learning on the Web" (TALOW95) were reserved or were openly critical about the Web's potential in teaching and learning in higher education. This came from academics who gave up two days and paid a fee to attend the workshop. This could suggest that more than half the doors knocked on by a Web protagonist will be metaphorically slammed in their face.
Rather than becoming a personal evangelist, and burning out in the process, it may be more effective and efficient to take the time to look at the lessons from diffusion theory as suggested by Goldenfarb [HREF 23]. Clearly the role of training is pivotal in embedding any new technology and the Web is no exception. Training can either be direct, in Internet and Web skills, or indirect in, for example, the use of style sheets in word processing which allow the ready markup of documents for the Web.
Goldschlager [HREF 25] makes the point that while the various robots that make their algorithmically determined way around the Web have their place, the creative categorisation of a resource by a human in an indexing service such as Goldschlager's "WWW.AU" index will provide a high quality link.
The constrictions that low band imposes over the medium term will require the adoption of what can be seen as interim delivery technologies. A well accepted technology is the CD-ROM which is increasingly being acquired by individuals (Ellis, Debreceny, & Hayden, 1995). Omari and Brogan [HREF 29] address the integration of the Web and CD-ROM technologies and point to the pitfalls of bringing together the two technologies.
Finally, there is a temptation for educationalists and technologists to ignore the wider societal impacts and interplays of the technology and that Web developments need to be seen as more than a set of technical specifications or "solutions". Chua [HREF 32] notes in the context of Gender and the Web that:
The Web and the Internet will continue to remorph gender, and in so doing dissolves gender boundaries as well as discipline boundaries. In this way the new technologies of knowledge in conjunction with the new technologies of gender will enable the de-territorialisation of knowledge. It is at this point that women should seize the opportunity for unless they are there to shape and manage, they might find themselves/ourselves being shaped and managed onceagain through the new technologies.Falk [HREF 31]makes the important point that:
The Web is a system of information which tells a story. Who will tell that story, its themes, emphases, and direction, will be a matter of contest. The central issue is to provide the social mechanisms and the technical support to try to ensure that the story is both helpful to large numbers of people, reflects and helps achieve their aspirations, and has a happy ending.The "happy ending" is something that we are all going to have work towards, rather than take for granted.
Bates, A. (1994). Educational Multimedia in a Networked Society. In T. Ottmann & I. Tomek (Eds.), Educational Mulimedia and Hypermedia - 1994 (pp. 3-8). Charlottesville, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education.
Ellis, A., Debreceny, R., & Hayden, M. (1995). The Management of Change towards Telecommunications Based Education - A Student Perspective. In H. Maurer (Ed.), Educational Mulimedia and Hypermedia - 1995 Charlottesville, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education.
AusWeb95 The First Australian WorldWideWeb Conference