A Few of My Favorite Links 
 

First Monday:  Peer Reviewed Journal on the Internet 
http://www.firstmonday.dk/ 

From "Introducing First Monday:" 
 
"You are looking at one of the first peer-reviewed journals on the Internet, about the Internet.  This truly scientific journal expands the frontiers of academic publishing by combining the traditional values of peer-reviewing and strict quality control with publication on the World Wide Web. 

The aim of First Monday is to publish original articles about the Internet and the Global nformation Infrastructure.  First Monday has: 

  •  followed the political and regulatory regimes affecting the Internet, 
  • examined the use of the Internet on a global scale, by analyzing economic,
  • technical, and social factors, 
  • reviewed research and development of Internet software and hardware, 
  • studied the use of Internet in specific communities, 
  • reported on standards, and 
  • discussed the content of the Internet."
 
 

PALINURUS The Academy and the Corporation:  Teaching Humanities in a Restructured World http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/liu/palinurus/index2.html 

From the index page of Palinurus: 

This pilot site was built by higher-education humanities scholars who have awakened to the combined practical and intellectual challenge to higher education posed by business in the era of "knowledge work," "learning organizations," and "information society." 

The site provides an interface through which educators can learn about the new world of business, and business reciprocally about contemporary higher education.  Historical resources flank the "new" for both business and academia in order to provide some perspective on the current rush to "obsolete" or "throwaway" the past in favor of "workplace 2000." Palinurus will also   include resources with a distinctly critical "edge." Whether polemical or philosophical in tone and whether from one or the other side of the academe/business divide, such resources show how passionately people ruled by "information economy" care about what it means to "know" and "learn." 

Also on the Palinurus Site: 
Critical Reflections on Information Technology 
http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/liu/palinurus/BIBLIO-it-and-academy+reflections.html 

  • General Critique of Information Technology
  • Critique of IT in Higher Education 
  • IT Portrayed in the Arts
 
 

NETFUTURE:  Technology and Human Responsibility 
http://www.oreilly.com/people/staff/stevet/netfuture/ 

Description from the main page of Netfuture: 

NETFUTURE is a reader supported newsletter with postings every couple of weeks. It looks beyond the generally recognized "risks" of computer use such as privacy violations, unequal access, censorship, and dangerous computer glitches. It seeks especially to address those deep levels at which we half-consciously shape technology and are shaped by it. What is half-conscious can, after all, be made fully conscious, and we can take responsibility for it.  
 
 

The Virtual University & Educational Opportunity--Issues of Equity and Access for the Next Generation 
http://www.collegeboard.org/policy/html/virtual.html 
(College Board Online:  Policy Analysis and Research) 
Description from the main page: 

The advent of the World Wide Web and the advancement of sophisticated computer software and hardware have created a surging online learning industry. The vision of students collecting certificates or degrees without ever setting foot in a classroom has captured the imagination of education entrepreneurs and Wall Street investors. This report reviews recent developments in information technology and distance learning, and how they combine with economic forces to fuel a global market for higher education. The report focuses especially on the question of access: Will the ėvirtual universityî expand opportunities for those who have traditionally been underrepresented in higher education? The report concludes that emerging technologies may, in fact, deepen the divide between educational haves and have-nots, and that the marketplace will not fix the problem. Public policy must intervene to narrow the digital divide between whites and minorities, the wealthy and the less advantaged. 
 
 

What's the Difference?  A Review of Contemporary Research on the Effectiveness of Distance Learning in Higher Education. 
http://www.ihep.com/difference.pdf 
(The Institute for Higher Education Policy) 

From the Foreword: 

The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association commissioned the Institute for Higher Education Policy to conduct a review of the current research on the effectiveness of distance education, to analyze what the research tells us and does not tell us.  What this report suggests is that too many of the questions . . . are left unaddressed or unanswered in the research, while policymakers, faculty, and students need to make properly informed judgements about key issues in distance education.   

On-line Luddism Index 
http://www.syntac.net/hoax/ludd.html 
Which is found on the Idioyntactix Web page: 
http://www.syntac.net/hoax/ 
 

Langdon Winner's Writings on Technology 
(Professor of Political Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Department of Science and Technology Studies) 
http://www.rpi.edu/~winner/write2.html