Seamless Integration of Lecture Notes and Web Pages

Abstract

Faculty wishing to use Web sites in class lectures face a dilemma: either they bookmark a list of sites and work their lecture around the list, or they try to learn and then integrate a new Web-based teaching application into their teaching paradigm. The first method presents difficult pedagogical and organizational problems that may leave students with scattered, unfocused learning experiences. The second technique—learning a new application—takes added time and learning and requires a new application that may or may not reflect the mental model that the faculty member developed in his/her mind's eye. The purpose of this article is to provide a third method that's both simple and powerful, and which faculty can use to generate lecture notes and students can use for giving presentations. The result is a seamless way to include links to Web sites and in-line graphic images, charts, flowcharts, models, animations, and photos, and which can be projected to the class as they are used, and printed out or viewed outside of class. Generating these active and universally accessible lecture notes require only “point and click” technology and basic word processing skills and uses software that's available in any version of the Netscape Web browser subsequent to 3.0, which is free to educators.