UniServe Science - Showcase Presentation

UniServe Science, The University of Sydney
Serving Australian Science and Technology

Are you lost in the Cyber Jungle?

Far from being "Cyber Space", the Internet is a "Cyber Jungle" with many resources virtually lost in the undergrowth. This presentation contains links that will help you in your search through the jungle.

What is the Internet? The Web - how can you find anything? The Web - how can you use it in your teaching? Where can you get help? Is it worth using? Now what do you do?

What is the Internet?

The Internet includes Compared to more traditional forms of communication

email email is equivalent to the postal service - a user must have a unique email address and messages are placed in an "electronic mailbox" until it is collected (read)

mailing lists mailing lists can be compared to an electronic form of "junk mail" - the user must subscribe to a mailing list and submit an email address to which future messages are sent. It is possible to unsubscribe from a list if the content is not as expected or the volume of mail is excessive.

newsgroups or list-servs newsgroups or list-servs are electronic bulletin boards - messages are stored electronically and can be browsed or read remotely, messages can be posted on the board for other participants to read

World Wide Web the Web is equivalent to the biggest library, shopping centre, museum, art gallery, newsagent - all on-line

chat sites real time "talking" just like the telephone - via the keyboard

ftp, telnet, gopher allow the transfer of files, use of remote computers and more

Outlines and explanations of the various facets of the Internet (email, newsgroups, listservers) with useful links can be found at http://hsc.csu.edu.au/help/index.htm

Another one (World Wide Web Walkabout) can be found at Macquarie University - at http://www.lib.mq.edu.au/support/training/online/walkabout/

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The Web - how can you find anything?

World Wide Web tools and why

search engines* allow you to search the Internet for key words and/or phrases. The lists of search engines is growing, and the usefulness is variable. Take the time to investigate the more advanced searching offered by the particular engine. There is now a very useful Australian search engine which allows the search to be confined to Australian sites.

meta search engines also called multisearch engines use two or more search engines to carry out the required search. Meta search engines include Dogpile and MetaFind Search.

subject trees* *Subject Trees provide hierarchical menus organised according to subject or alphabetically. The sites are organised from the general through to the specific.

The most popular of these is Yahoo and the Australia and New Zealand version. You can personalise a Yahoo page by going to MyYahoo. It will automatically update the information you have nominated each session e.g. share prices, sport scores. However it also allows you to have your personal bookmarks on the page and these can then be accessed from any computer on the World Wide Web.

mailing lists and discussion groups Communication with other teachers can be a source of valuable ideas and links. This can be achieved through email lists or mailing lists.

newsgroups or list-servs Communication can also be achieved through newsgroups or list-servs.

* Many Search Engines combine search facilities with Subject Trees.

Here is a BRIEF comparison on some of the more common search engines/subject trees. More detailed descriptions and comparisons can be found at

Guide to Meta-Search Engines - http://www.datarecoverylabs.com/brief-history-search-engines.html

Alternatively Library Internet Search Page at Fisher Library, The University of Sydney has links to Search Engines & Search features chart, Simultaneous Search Engines and Search Tips

Library Internet Search Page - http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/Index/search.html

An excellent tutorial on Searching the Web with chapters on Search Engines: a Definition, Meta-Searchers: a Definition, Creating a Search Strategy and Basic Search Tips can be found at

Bare Bones 101: A Basic Tutorial on Searching the Web - http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/bones.html

Yahoo
URL	http://www.yahoo.com/
Subject Tree	e.g. Education - Science - Social Science
Search Engine	Allows user to specify the search for exact phrase, matching all words, matching any word, a person's name. Find new listings for period from 1 day to 3 years. Allows you to create a personalised Yahoo page Allows use of wildcards (*) Use double quotation marks to indicate a phrase e.g. "chocolate chip cookie recipe" Use plus (+) and minus (-) for inclusion and exclusion of words Use t:word (Title) or u:word (URL) to limit search to the section of the document to be searched

Yahoo Australia
URL	http://www.yahoo.com.au/
Subject Tree	e.g. Education - Science - Social Science possible to specify Australian sites only
Search Engine	Allows user to specify the search for exact phrase, matching all words, matching any word, a person's name. Find new listings for period from 1 day to 3 years. Confine search to Australian sites Allows use of wildcards (*) Use double quotation marks to indicate a phrase e.g. "chocolate chip cookie recipe" Use plus (+) and minus (-) for inclusion and exclusion of words Use t:word (Title) or u:word (URL) to limit search to the section of the document to be searched

AltaVista (simple search)
URL	http://www.altavista.com/
Subject Tree	e.g. Reference and Education
Search Engine	Allows the search of a particular word on pages written in a particular language Allows search of more than just text, e.g. search for images, applets, domain names Allows use of wildcards (*) Use double quotation marks to indicate a phrase e.g. "chocolate chip cookie recipe" Use plus (+) and minus (-) for inclusion and exclusion of words

AltaVista (advanced search)
URL	http://www.altavista.com/
Search Engine	Allows the search of a particular word on pages written in a particular language Confine search to a range of specific dates Create specific relationships among keywords or phrases using (brackets), OR, NOT, AND, NEAR.

Anzwers
URL	http://www.anzwers.com.au/
Subject Tree	Select Australia, NZ or World - reference and education
Search Engine	Allows search for all the words, any of the words, exact phrase and more. Allows search of just Australian sites. PowerSearch allows search within a specific time frame, specific domains, media type, depth of page within a web site.

Lycos
URL	http://www.lycos.com/
Subject Tree	e.g. Education
Search Engine	Pro Search allows search for all the words, any of the words, exact phrase, natural language query and more. Up to 15 languages. Specific domain names.

Dogpile
URL	http://www.dogpile.com/
Subject Tree	Limited
Search Engine	Search with up to 25 search engines in a specified period of time (10 to 60 seconds).

Some useful links to mailing lists, newsgroups and list-servs.

One particularly useful moderated mailing list for tertiary educators is ONLINE-ED. To subscribe to this mailing list visit the web site at http://www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/online-ed/

HUM-MOLGEN is a moderated, interactive communication and information listserver in Human Genetics. Further information available from http://www.informatik.uni-rostock.de/HUM-MOLGEN/index.html

Teaching Educational Psychology Listserv, an electronic discussion forum for discussion of issues of interest to those who teach educational psychology. Further details from http://seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/~gene/TEPSIG/TEP_SIG.html

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The Web - how can you use it in your teaching?

Course Material

virtual field trips Mainly in the area of geography, geology and ecology, virtual trips access locations without leaving the laboratory/computer room.

Some geological field trips can be found at:

A Geologist's Lifetime Field List at http://www.uc.edu/geology/geologylist/index.html

A virtual field trip with a difference can be found at http://www.madsci.org/~lynn/VH/ (It is A Guided Tour of the Visible Human)

simulations These include on-line simulations, demonstrations, virtual laboratories and investigations.

Play the role of a microbiologist in The Virtual Bacterial ID Lab from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at http://www.hhmi.org/grants/lectures/biointeractive/vlab99/.

applets An applet is a program that is designed to run within another program such as an Internet browser - Netscape or Microsoft Explorer. The advantage of applets is that they will run on both Macintosh and Windows hardware.

There are over 20 easily understandable, user friendly educational applets at Interactive Physics and Math with Java at http://www.physics.otago.ac.nz/Physics100/simulations/Gamelan/index.html
on-line tests Psychology is well catered for with courseware such as:

Welcome to the Landrigan Page! Visual Illusions Gallery at http://dragon.uml.edu/psych/land1.html

experiments from the Cognitive Psychology Online Laboratory at http://coglab.psych.purdue.edu/coglab/

tests and quizzes at quiz central at http://www.allhealth.com/quiz/

Source of up to date information

on-line journals An increasing number of academic journals are available on-line and many can be accessed through the university library system. Some journals are available only by subscription, while many contain only abstracts. The following links are to sites that publish complete transcripts of papers and are freely accessed.

A number of on-line journals are available from http://www.informatik.uni-rostock.de/HUM-MOLGEN/journals.html Journals include Cell, Genetics and Genes and Development. Full articles of the current issue are available.

The Internet Journal of Chemistry (the electronic journal for chemists) is available at http://www.ijc.com/ijc.register.html Registration is encouraged but not essential.

Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research - full articles available at http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/jair/home.html

virtual conferences These include Virtual CUBE 97 (Australian Mirror site - http://science.uniserve.edu.au/mirror/vCUBE97/), Virtual CUBE 98 at http://www.liv.ac.uk/ctibiol/cube98/html/vcube.html and EdTech'98 and ACEC'98 Virtual Conference at http://cleo.murdoch.edu.au/gen/aset/confs/edtech98/vconf/

software information On-line databases of teaching and research software can be found at the UniServe Science web site and the web sites of the various CTI Centres. These databases also contain independent reviews of selected pieces of software.

Distributors such as MicroInfo Ltd maintain an on-line catalog at http://www.microinfo.co.uk/

PsycLink at http://www2.plattsburgh.edu/psyclink/menuscreens/psyres.html has psychology software categorised under relevant headings (e.g. Sensation and Perception, Cognition).
virtual library The Virtual Library at http://vlib.org/ covers many disciplines including science, engineering, humanities and social sciences with links to on-line resources, newsgroups, journals and conferences.

revision, supplementary and extension material

on-line course material Courses resources (Geosciences) set up by John Butler at the University of Houston http://www.uh.edu/~jbutler/anon/anon_resources.html

information sites Internet Mental Health at http://www.mentalhealth.com/ covers a wide range of disorders.

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Where can you get help?

Service organisations University Departments Publishers Professional Organisations Governments Organisations

Service Organisations

UniServe Science

UniServe Science is a clearinghouse for information about the use of information technology in science teaching. UniServe Science maintains a web site which contains a searchable database of over 3000 software titles (mainly tertiary but it does include some secondary titles), publishes a regular newsletter which contains articles, software reviews and reports (available on-line), conducts workshops, is a mirror site for some international science resources, has links to the relevant departments in all Australian Universities, has links to useful sites for the science disciplines, and sponsors electronic discussion groups in the science disciplines. These are used to disseminate information on a regular basis about workshops, good web sites, conferences etc.

You will find our web site at http://science.uniserve.edu.au/

Learning and Teaching Support Networks - United Kingdom

Geography, Earth and Environmental Science - http://www.gees.ac.uk/

Physical Sciences - http://dbweb.liv.ac.uk/ltsnpsc/

Mathematics, Statistics and Operational Research - http://www.bham.ac.uk/msor/

Bioscience - http://bio.ltsn.ac.uk/

Information and Computing Science - http://www.ics.ltsn.ac.uk/

Psychology - http://www.psychology.ltsn.ac.uk/

Computers in Teaching Initiative

Although the CTIs have now been replaced by LTSNs, most of resources developed by the former organisations are still avilable from their respective web sites. They were set up in the United Kingdom to support the use of communication and information technologies in higher education.

Science	Arts and Humanities	Social Sciences	Professions
Biology Chemistry Computing Engineering Geography, Geology and Meteorology Centre for Land Use and Environmental Sciences Mathematics Physics Statistics	Art and Design History, Archaeology and Art History Modern Languages Music Textual Studies	Economics Psychology Sociology, Politics and Social Policy	Accounting Finance and Management Built Environment Human Services Law Library and Information Studies Medicine Nursing and Midwifery

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University Departments

These are just a few examples of what is available

Biological Links from Harvard University Molecular and Cellular Biology at http://golgi.harvard.edu/

The Biology Project an on-line interactive resource for learning biology at The University of Arizona http://www.biology.arizona.edu/

OzChemNet at the Australian Defence Force Academy http://131.236.60.11/ozchemnet/

Publishers

Go Biology Surfing from Brooks/Cole Biology Resource Centre at http://www.brookscole.com/biology/member/student/surfing/

Brooks/Cole Earth Science Resource Center at http://www.brookscole.com/geo/ and explore the Favorite Field Trips from the same site.

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Professional Organisations

The Online Resources at The National Association of Biology Teachers at http://www.nabt.org/sup/resources/nabtweb.asp

Genetics association of Australia Inc at http://gsa.angis.org.au/Education/

Chemsoc the chemistry societies network at http://www.chemsoc.org/

Go to TIPTOP and be sure to visit The Virtual Laboratory from the Institute of Physics homepage at http://www.iop.org/

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Government Organisations

GeoScience Awareness (The Australian Geological Survey Organisation) at http://www.agso.gov.au/education/

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Is it worth using?

Some questions to consider when you are looking for useful sites

Is it worth using?

Is the information up to date?

Is the source creditable?

Does the site load "quickly"?

Is the information acknowledged?

Is the information available from an alternative source?

Evaluation and Validity of Web Resources at http://www.ed.sc.edu/caw/eval.html

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Now what do I do?

Let other academics know about a worthwhile site through mailing lists, newsgroups and links from your web site.

Add to the sites available yourself or through your students as a form of assessment.

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To notify us of any broken links or to suggest a site for inclusion on this page please send us an email, noting the url and name of this page in your email.

Return to home page

Page Maintained By: PhySciCH@mail.usyd.edu.au
Last Update: Friday, 24-Apr-2009 14:40:57 EST
URL: http://science.uniserve.edu.au/other/showfull.html

The Internet includes	Compared to more traditional forms of communication
email	email is equivalent to the postal service - a user must have a unique email address and messages are placed in an "electronic mailbox" until it is collected (read)
mailing lists	mailing lists can be compared to an electronic form of "junk mail" - the user must subscribe to a mailing list and submit an email address to which future messages are sent. It is possible to unsubscribe from a list if the content is not as expected or the volume of mail is excessive.
newsgroups or list-servs	newsgroups or list-servs are electronic bulletin boards - messages are stored electronically and can be browsed or read remotely, messages can be posted on the board for other participants to read
World Wide Web	the Web is equivalent to the biggest library, shopping centre, museum, art gallery, newsagent - all on-line
chat sites	real time "talking" just like the telephone - via the keyboard
ftp, telnet, gopher	allow the transfer of files, use of remote computers and more

World Wide Web tools	and why
search engines*	allow you to search the Internet for key words and/or phrases. The lists of search engines is growing, and the usefulness is variable. Take the time to investigate the more advanced searching offered by the particular engine. There is now a very useful Australian search engine which allows the search to be confined to Australian sites.
meta search engines	also called multisearch engines use two or more search engines to carry out the required search. Meta search engines include Dogpile and MetaFind Search.
subject trees*	*Subject Trees provide hierarchical menus organised according to subject or alphabetically. The sites are organised from the general through to the specific. The most popular of these is Yahoo and the Australia and New Zealand version. You can personalise a Yahoo page by going to MyYahoo. It will automatically update the information you have nominated each session e.g. share prices, sport scores. However it also allows you to have your personal bookmarks on the page and these can then be accessed from any computer on the World Wide Web.
mailing lists and discussion groups	Communication with other teachers can be a source of valuable ideas and links. This can be achieved through email lists or mailing lists.
newsgroups or list-servs	Communication can also be achieved through newsgroups or list-servs.

Course Material
virtual field trips	Mainly in the area of geography, geology and ecology, virtual trips access locations without leaving the laboratory/computer room. Some geological field trips can be found at: A Geologist's Lifetime Field List at http://www.uc.edu/geology/geologylist/index.html A virtual field trip with a difference can be found at http://www.madsci.org/~lynn/VH/ (It is A Guided Tour of the Visible Human)
simulations	These include on-line simulations, demonstrations, virtual laboratories and investigations. Play the role of a microbiologist in The Virtual Bacterial ID Lab from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at http://www.hhmi.org/grants/lectures/biointeractive/vlab99/.
applets	An applet is a program that is designed to run within another program such as an Internet browser - Netscape or Microsoft Explorer. The advantage of applets is that they will run on both Macintosh and Windows hardware. There are over 20 easily understandable, user friendly educational applets at Interactive Physics and Math with Java at http://www.physics.otago.ac.nz/Physics100/simulations/Gamelan/index.html
on-line tests	Psychology is well catered for with courseware such as: Welcome to the Landrigan Page! Visual Illusions Gallery at http://dragon.uml.edu/psych/land1.html experiments from the Cognitive Psychology Online Laboratory at http://coglab.psych.purdue.edu/coglab/ tests and quizzes at quiz central at http://www.allhealth.com/quiz/
Source of up to date information
on-line journals	An increasing number of academic journals are available on-line and many can be accessed through the university library system. Some journals are available only by subscription, while many contain only abstracts. The following links are to sites that publish complete transcripts of papers and are freely accessed. A number of on-line journals are available from http://www.informatik.uni-rostock.de/HUM-MOLGEN/journals.html Journals include Cell, Genetics and Genes and Development. Full articles of the current issue are available. The Internet Journal of Chemistry (the electronic journal for chemists) is available at http://www.ijc.com/ijc.register.html Registration is encouraged but not essential. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research - full articles available at http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/jair/home.html
virtual conferences	These include Virtual CUBE 97 (Australian Mirror site - http://science.uniserve.edu.au/mirror/vCUBE97/), Virtual CUBE 98 at http://www.liv.ac.uk/ctibiol/cube98/html/vcube.html and EdTech'98 and ACEC'98 Virtual Conference at http://cleo.murdoch.edu.au/gen/aset/confs/edtech98/vconf/
software information	On-line databases of teaching and research software can be found at the UniServe Science web site and the web sites of the various CTI Centres. These databases also contain independent reviews of selected pieces of software. Distributors such as MicroInfo Ltd maintain an on-line catalog at http://www.microinfo.co.uk/ PsycLink at http://www2.plattsburgh.edu/psyclink/menuscreens/psyres.html has psychology software categorised under relevant headings (e.g. Sensation and Perception, Cognition).
virtual library	The Virtual Library at http://vlib.org/ covers many disciplines including science, engineering, humanities and social sciences with links to on-line resources, newsgroups, journals and conferences.
revision, supplementary and extension material
on-line course material	Courses resources (Geosciences) set up by John Butler at the University of Houston http://www.uh.edu/~jbutler/anon/anon_resources.html
information sites	Internet Mental Health at http://www.mentalhealth.com/ covers a wide range of disorders.