Caught In
The Web

The Internet is breathing new life into education with the advent of Cyberschooling. Folks that never had the opportunity to attend a university are now able to take classes on any subject and receive credits toward a degree of their choice. Students are not required to ever set foot on campus, in fact they don't even have to be on the same continent as the college or university. Better yet, they can tap into the university computer network any time of the day or night from anywhere to complete assignments, work on projects with other students or check in with their professors.

Students and teachers interact with each other at these virtual campuses by communicating electronically. Homework and exams are sent back and forth through e-mail and students often get involved in class work through electronic "chat" sessions. Most colleges are offering degree-completion programs tailored to older students that lack just a few credits in order to complete their studies and several, like the University of Phoenix, offer advanced degrees.

At Manhattan's New School for Social Research professors upload their lectures to the Internet and maintain regular e-mail and chat conferences to engage students in dialogue. Students are finding their course work through this medium is often more productive than conventional methods because they have more time to think and formulate questions than in a traditional setting.

Following is a brief list of "CyberUniversities."

Franklin College
Newport University
U. of Paisley (Scotland)
City University of Bellevue,Washington
Brigham Young University
University of Houston

If money, or lack thereof, is a problem , then you can check out the searchable database on financial aid and scholarships.

It should be noted that ISPs (Internet Service Providers), even those with direct pipes to the backbone, are not exactly jumping for joy at this development. If a significant number of users start tuning into these live net broadcasts things could slow to a crawl as bandwidth bloat starts blowing out the ports of your local ISP. Even the larger providers are looking at this development with caution; as one system administrator put it, "no one wants to be told by tech support that they can't get their e-mail tonight because The Artist Formerly Known As Prince has decided to play a few notes to his net friends."

Lockheed Martin Enterprise in Orlando, FL has signed an agreement with Netscape Communications Corp. that will put 80,000 of their employees on their internal network using the Netscape Navigator browser. Lockheed is going to start by publishing its 300-page Policy and Procedures guide and move on to include information on their training programs and software development programs.

When Genetech of San Francisco installed their first web server in 1994 it was intended to just replace their bulletin board system but today over 3,000 employees are on the system and it is as an integral part of their daily communications.

US West in Denver refers to their internal web as the Global Village project and has created what they call the Virtual Secretary. Virtual Secretary has been described as a collection of useful tips on "how to get things done" from ordering lunch to making sure the paperwork gets to the right department on time. Over 15,000 of the company's 50,000 employees are connected to the Global Village.

One of the most compelling arguments to be made in favor of deploying a Intranet Web site is that it shifts the responsibility of publishing and maintaining information to the individuals and departments that create the content in the first place.

Their decision to base their internal information infrastructure on web technology and the Internet came about in large part because of their primary mandate: to provide public access to their collections. In a real sense Museum officials want to create another entrance to the institution, a virtual entrance through the World Wide Web, which is now open to the public.

Surfing Safari for the month. If you are like me, one thing had become abundantly clear regarding Home Page development. There is no accounting for some folk's taste, or lack thereof. So this month I am offering you a golden opportunity to send in examples of your all-time worst hits. Web pages that make you gag. Winners will get to make a selection from Al's goodie bag of software and books and your entries will be included in an upcoming issue of the Journal. Send your worst via e-mail to almas@hal-pc.org.