Product Description

The internet and world wide web are revolutionizing many aspects of our lives, and have become an accepted part of socioeconomic experience in developed countries. For entertainment, shopping, banking, establishing friendships, seeking information, and so on, the web is the first port of call for an increasing number of people. A few in education have been quick to see the potential of the web as a platform for delivering a variety of teaching and learning materials. Many more, however, would like to make use of the web, but lack either the time or the skills, or both.  Untangled Web provides a guide for those wishing to develop their own teaching and learning resources on the web, whether for local, open or distance learning. By using this book, potential web educators can acquire some of these basic skills and save time by drawing on the experiences of the authors and avoiding the pitfalls and problems that they have encountered. The authors have gained considerable expertise in devising, designing, constructing, testing, adapting and evaluating their own web-based instruction packages which have been developed over a number of years and involve a variety of subject areas. Untangled web is therefore very much focused on practical experience, and while it is primarily aimed at teachers in further and higher education, schoolteachers interested in using the web as a teaching and learning medium will find it useful. Untangled Web has been written by an experienced team from the Department of International Studies at the Nottingham Trent University. David Graham teaches geography and information technology; Jane McNeil is Faculty webmaster and teaches medieval history and information technology; Lloyd Pettiford teaches international relations.Innovative guide to using the web in teaching and learning, providing practical advice for lecturers and teachers on using the web as more than just a support tool

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1287125 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 308 pages

Customer Reviews

Confused about elearning? Read this book.
...In plain language: help with planning and building an educational web site.

This book delivers what it promises in the introduction, being an excellent introduction to key issues surrounding the area of Web Based Instruction (WBI).
Essentially this is a reference to the provision of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) materials over a computer network, be it the Internet or something similar such as an institutional Intranet or Extranet.

The book makes it clear from the start that it will not deal in-depth with HTML and other coding issues, or provide a very mechanistic instructional guide to particular applications. What it does do is to effectively ask a lot of useful questions and provide lots of useful answers when it comes to planning and managing a web site. More than that it also addresses key pedagogic points, considers such vital areas as copyright and makes good use of examples from the authors own work to illustrate the points being made. Practical tips and advice are thoroughly supported by a range of academic references so this book can function both as a manual and a useful general reader.

It has an easy written style that makes for something that is quite readable whilst being academically credible. This enables large amounts of material to be covered and hopefully absorbed by the reader. The book is attractively styled but this is no simple triumph of form over content. The material contained within the book is of a high quality and should prove very useful to people working in this area.

The authors adopt a refreshingly reflexive and honest approach when it comes to such considerations as likely support from management in a university culture that often rewards research more than teaching innovation. This is not to say that the book is negative in tone - far from it. In fact it offers a very positive message about the possible benefits to be derived from ODL and is simply honest enough to acknowledge that there will be problems; but those undertaking the development of such sites can take comfort from knowing that they are not alone in facing such problems or in seeking solutions to them.

This book would be well suited to both educators who are considering embarking on their first WBI project and those who already have some experience, but who might like to remind themselves of some useful first principles, and handy hints and tips.

The reviewer has authored many web sites, and was aware of many points of good practice suggested in this book and elsewhere, along with many of the hints and tips collected here. However reading the book provided a useful poke in the conscience as, citing the pressures of work, I do not always practice what I preach. After reading the book I was re-motivated enough to make a list of improvements that I would apply to my sites straightaway. So the book proved useful to me and, though little do they know it, to my own students. In summary: if you are thinking of developing a WBI site and are planning some background reading this book should be one for your shortlist.

Phil Wane