Innovations                                                                                          

School's out — Time to surf the 'net

American education is still hobbling down Electronic Avenue in an oxcart. —— Terrell Bell, former U.S. secretary of education

A pilot project at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, aims to get teachers and students up to speed on the information highway. However, as anyone who has ever "surfed the 'net" knows, the volume of information can be overwhelming. Illinois Education Link, also known as EduLinK-12, helps sort out resources useful to teachers. By tapping into the expertise of faculty at the U of I, the project gives teachers what we all wish we had: a direct line to a computer whiz and experts who will act as mentors.

Carolyn Dahl, project coordinator at the Urbana-Champaign campus, says one of the goals of the project is to help teachers use the Internet to find resources to develop curricula. Two university resources on the Internet are the Illinois Learning Mosaic and Internet Resources in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education.

The Illinois Learning Mosaic was developed by the university's National Center for Supercomputing Applications for the Governor's Educational Technology Summit. ILM staff search the Internet for resources teachers can use and then provide easy "user interfaces" to make the information accessible. ILM also provides information about colleges and universities throughout the state and about the availability of classes for teacher training.

Though sharing an unusual name, ILM is different from the Mosaic software, which was also developed by NCSA. Mosaic is a networking software called a web browser that lets sound, graphics, movies and animation, as well as text-based information, travel the Internet. The Mosaic software is free from the U of I.

For more information about Mosaic software, contact John Melchi at 217/244-3049, or through his e-mail address: jmelchi@ncsa.uiuc.edu.

Illinois Home Page
available on the Internet

Illinois joined 11 other states in offering a Home Page, a kind of electronic newsletter. Available on the Internet, the Illinois Home Page gives cruisers access to information about state agencies, education, museums and corporations.

Through the state Home Page, viewers can link to Home Pages for Gov. Jim Edgar and Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra and members of the General Assembly. Also available is the Illinois Technology Blueprint, which grew out of the governor's education technology summits. The blueprint focuses on expanding student learning and promoting economic development through statewide electronic connection. Users can reach the Illinois Home Page at http://www.state.il.us.

Keeping freedom of speech alive on the web

Freedom of the press, guaranteed in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, is accepted as a basic right of a democratic people, even though it is constantly challenged by those who want to suppress written materials on moral, social or political grounds.

In 1968, Southern Illinois University Press published the first volume of Ralph E. McCoy's Freedom of the Press bibliography series. The 8,000-item, annotated volume covers 400 years of printed materials relating to press freedom, and it is now online via the Internet. In addition, many of the publications listed in the bibliography are contained in SlUC's 12,000-item McCoy Freedom of the Press collection. Morris Library, which houses the collection, hopes to offer computer patrons the complete text of the materials

held in its collections, if not electronically, then by fax, photocopy or interlibrary loan. Library staff hope to put McCoy's final two volumes online soon.

Internet users with browser software such as Mosaic or Netscape can access McCoy's Freedom of the Press: An Annotated Bibliography at this address: http://www.siu.edu/library.

Photo courtesy of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
Susan L. Logue (left), the library's preservation head, orchestrated the job of putting the first annotated volume
online and offering the complete text of materials in the bibliography. "The thing that really interested me about
this project is that we're allowing free access to many things that have been banned and to legislation about restricted
access," she says. "It kind of negates the original act of censorship." For more information, e-mail
Logue at this address: slogue @ lib.siu.edu

Death Row inmate pleads case in cyberspace

A new twist to using the Internet to get your message out is the case of Girvies Davis, a Death Row inmate who went online to plead his case for clemency. Davis, who was executed by lethal injection on May 17, is believed to have been the first Death Row inmate to turn to the Internet. His Home Page included a copy of his clemency petition to the governor, pictures and audio.

4/June 1995/Illinois Issues