May 1994 No. 11

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.

Hypertext Discussion List for Educators
MC Journal
Information Gatherer Newsletter
Flash Information
Awesome Internet Resource
Another Online Campus Newspaper
No Computer Use Till After Puberty?

HYPERTEXT DISCUSSION LIST FOR EDUCATORS

The HYPEREDU list promotes discussion on use of hypertexts and hypermedia in education and, in particular, the advantages versus disadvantages of the introduction of these tools at any educational level (from elementary school to college). This list does not cover technical questions and problems. The discussion will be held in Italian, but contributions in English and French are welcome.

To subscribe to the list, send a message to: listserv@itocsivm.csi.it with the message:
subscribe hyperedu your_firstname your_lastname.
To send a message to the list, send the message to: hyperedu@itocsivm.csi.it

MC JOURNAL

MC JOURNAL: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship is a peer reviewed electronic journal that disseminates substantive information relevant to media services in academic libraries. Articles include scholarly works that address issues related to the practice of media librarianship and application papers that provide discussion on specific methodologies related to media services. Non-librarians may also find this journal useful. Articles in the latest issue (Winter 1994) covered the following topics: the use of Internet resources by media personnel in higher education, LCD panels, providing accessible media to deaf and hard-of-hearing people, and an extensive bibliography on media technology.

MC Journal is published on an irregular basis. It is distributed as email from the Computing Center at the State University of New York at Buffalo. To subscribe, send email to: listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu or listserv@ubvm.bitnet with the message:
sub mcjrnl firstname lastname.

Back issues are available on the World Wide Web at URL http://wings.buffalo.edu/publications/mcjrnl/

INFORMATION GATHERER NEWSLETTER

A new electronic publication, Information Gatherer Newsletter, is a "private journal devoted exclusively to topics of interest to information professionals (i.e. investigators, journalists, information brokers, records researchers, intelligence analysts, librarians, and related fields). It is circulated throughout the Internet, in addition to various public-sector commercial networks, including: Compuserve, MCI Mail, America Online, Prodigy, Delphi, Genie, Bix, AT&T Mail, and Sprint Mail.

The newsletter is edited by David Johnson, president of Worldwide Consultants, an international investigator, security consultant, and privacy strategist who specializes in locating elusive data, protection matters, and financial and personal privacy. The first issue features an article on computer security for information professionals and a column of short items titled "News and Resources from Around the World."

Information Gatherer Newsletter is published quarterly by Worldwide Consultants, 2421 West Pratt Boulevard, Suite 971, Chicago, IL 60645, USA; email: worldwid@uunet.uu.net. Subscriptions are $20/year for electronic or airmail delivery ($25/year foreign airmail delivery). Sample copies and back issues are $5/each ($6/each foreign airmail delivery).

FLASH INFORMATION

Flash Information is a newsletter featuring bibliographies and information briefs aimed at R&D managers, researchers, and professionals within the field of information technologies (computers and computing, software engineering, natural language processing, multimedia systems, information storage, interchange and retrieval, and work organization). It is disseminated by ISIR, the Integrated Service of Information Resources, of the Centre for Information Technology Innovation (Industry Canada).

Flash Information is published weekly and distributed (currently at no cost) via email. To receive this publication, send your email address to flash@citi.doc.ca

AWESOME INTERNET RESOURCE

John Makulowich, an Internet trainer, has created "The Awesome Lists," a hypertext document that provides a view of what he calls "the glory and grandeur of the Internet, the sine qua non of Cyberspace, the main characters in the evolving drama." The Awesome Lists includes links to educational, entertainment, and commercial services. The information is accessible using a World-Wide Web (WWW) browser such as Mosaic, Lynx, or Cello. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for the site is: http://www.clark.net/pub/journalism/awesome.html.

ANOTHER ONLINE CAMPUS NEWSPAPER

In response to last month's article, "Campus Newspapers Online," Phil Quinn (pquinn@ecst.csuchico.edu) wrote to suggest we look at The Orion Online, California State University Chico's hypertext version of their campus newspaper. The online version is printed weekly (except during the summer) and contains all the stories and photographs of the hardcopy version. It can be accessed with a WWW browser (Mosaic, Cello, etc.) at the URL: http://orion.csuchico.edu/

Not only can you read a hypertext edition of the newspaper, but you can also browse through a photographic archive from 1993/94 issues.

NO COMPUTER USE TILL AFTER PUBERTY?

Valdemar (Val) W. Setzer, Institute of Mathematics and Statistics, University of São Paulo, Brazil, has collected a series of pieces originally posted to the INFED-L list into a set of articles titled "Against the Use of Computers in Elementary Education." Setzer opposes the trend in the U.S. to introduce young children to computers in school and argues that the ideal age to let young people use computers is about 17, or after puberty. To read his provocative opinions, ftp the articles from URL ftp://ftp.ime.usp.br/pub/vwsetzer/. The articles are in ten files named "part-1" through "part-10."
To comment or criticize them, send email to: vwsetzer@ime.usp.br
For links to more papers by Dr. Setzer, go to http://www.ime.usp.br/~vwsetzer/index.html