Internet Resources for Community College Practitioners

The Internet is an international computer network consisting of thousands of smaller interconnected computer networks. This digest describes some of the Internet resources that are available to community college practitioners at no cost.

To best use all of the Internet services described in this digest, you will need:

an IBM-compatible computer capable of running Windows, or a MAC with a processor of 68030 or better;

a relatively fast modem -- at least 14,000 baud per second;

an Internet provider; and

telecommunications software (which is usually supplied by the Internet provider).

The faster your computer and modem is, the faster your connections to the Internet will be. If you are incurring telephone or access charges when accessing the Internet, speed will be an important consideration. To access the full multi-media capabilities of the World Wide Web, you will need greater computer/modem speed than if you want to access Gopher or other text-based Internet services.

The World Wide Web (WWW) is an Internet facility that uses hypertext and multimedia techniques to make the Web easy for users to browse. To access the WWW, you need a client program such as Mosaic, Cello, or Lynx.

For help with finding an Internet provider near you, call your State Department of Education or ACCESS ERIC at 1-800-LET-ERIC.GUIDES TO INTERNET RESOURCESClearinghouse of Subject-Oriented Internet Resource Guides: A large collection of guides to Internet resources categorized by topic.

Gopher address: una.hh.lib.umich.edu

WWW address: http://www.lib.umich.edu/chhome.html

Rice University Gopher: Menus of resources maintained elsewhere are organized by subject matter at this site. It includes a broad range of topics, including art, journalism, medicine, aerospace, mathematics, and literature.

Gopher address: riceinfo.rice.edu (select Information by Subject Area)

WWW address: http://riceinfo.rice/edu/

W3 Servers: A catalog of all registered WWW servers. They are arranged geographically (by continent, country, and state) or by subject.

WWW address: http://www.w3.org/hypertext/DataSources/www/servers.htmlCOMMUNITY COLLEGE INTERNET SITESFayetteville Technical College maintains a gopher site with pointers to many of the gopher sites set up by community colleges. They offer information on their campuses, courses available, athletic and social events, and school policies.

Gopher address: gopher1.faytech.cc.nc.us (select Community College Gophers)

Community Colleges Web Directory contains a collection of pointers to Web servers at community colleges.

WWW address: http//www.yahoo.com/Education/Community[underscore]Colleges

Educati on Virtual Library lists education related Web sites alphabetically and by education level, resources provided, country, and type of site.

WWW address: http://www.csu.edu.au/education/library.html

Community College League of California maintains a home page with legislative information, publications, and conference news.

WWW address: http://www.cerritos.edu/cclc/cclc.html

ERIC Clearinghouse for Community Colleges has collected bibliographies on community college topics.

Gopher address: ericir.syr.eduELECTRONIC BOOKSProject Gutenberg: Classics, poetry, and historical documents in full text

Gopher address: joeboy.micro.umn.edu (select ebooks)

FTP address: deneva.sdd.trw.com (the cd/etext) username: anonymous password:

(your Internet address)

WWW address: http://jg.cso.uiuc.edu/PG/welcome.html

Internet Wiretap: All of the Project Gutenberg books, plus White House press releases, laws, and other legal documents.

Gopher address: wiretap.spies.comREFERENCE RESOURCESFlorida Tech Education Gopher: Provides a collection of reference sources, including the American English Dictionary, Roget's Thesaurus, the U.S. Zip Code Directory, the CIA World Factbook, telephone area code directories for the United States and foreign countries, and 1990 U.S. Census data.

Gopher address: sci-ed.fit.edu 70 (select Reference Desk)

Libraries of Purdue University: An extensive collection of ready reference resources.

WWW address: http://thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/reference/index.htmlGOVERNMENT INFORMATIONThe U.S. Department of Education provides information on legislation, programs (such as Goals 2000 and School-to-Work), publications, statistics, and educational software on their gopher. Links to other education gophers are included.

Gopher address: gopher.ed.gov

WWW address: http://www.ed.gov/

Library of Congress Marvel includes Congressional, White House, and State Department information as well as links to international, federal, state, and local government resources. It also contains over 27 million searchable records of materials cataloged and held by the Library of Congress.

Gopher address: marvel.loc.gov

WWW address: http://lcweb.loc.gov/homepage/lchp.htmlLIBRARY CATALOGSYale University provides access to worldwide library catalogs. Users can browse through a geographic listing or search by institution, library name, or city.

Gopher address: libgopher.yale.edu

Library of Congress also provides telnet access to their holdings, as well as U.S. government copyright files, federal legislation, and foreign law.

Telnet address: locis.loc.govUSENET NEWSGROUPSUsenet Newsgroups are an electronic bulletin board system, accessible through the Internet, that consists of discussion forums on thousands of topics. Contact your system operator for instructions for access. Community college practitioners might be interested in the following groups:

alt.education.disabled

alt.education.distance

alt.education.higher.stu-affairs

alt.education.research

clari.news.education.higher

misc.education.adult

misc.education.language.english

misc.education.multimedia

misc.education.scienceLISTSERVSListserv are automated programs that serve as distribution centers for mail messages. They are organized around a central theme or issue, and provide a forum for individuals to pose questions and share information with colleagues. To participate, you must subscribe by sending an e-mail message to the listserv program. For example, to subscribe to COMMCOLL you would address the message to [email protected]. Your message would read "subscribe commcoll <your name>."

Below are listservs of interest to community college practitioners:

COMMCOLL

[email protected]

Community college administrators, faculty and staff.

ADJUNCT FACULTY

listserv@nmsuedu

Part-time and adjunct faculty in community colleges and universities.

CJC-L

[email protected]

Community college librarians.

DEOS-L

[email protected]

Distance education.

MATHEDCC

[email protected]

Two-year college mathematics.

S2WTP

[email protected]

School-to-work, tech-prep.

STWNet

[email protected]

School to work.

TCC-L

[email protected]

Community college faculty.

For a list of more listservs, e-mail the ERIC Clearinghouse for Community Colleges at [email protected] and ask for "A Guide to Listservs for Community College Practitioners."QUESTION ANSWERINGAskERIC is a human mediated question answering service for teachers, parents, administrators, and others involved in education. A project of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology at Syracuse University, AskERIC uses the resources of the ERIC system and the Internet to answer questions sent by electronic mail. Send your questions to [email protected].

Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University provides help on correct English usage and writing. Tutors will answer questions by e-mail. Send the question to [email protected]. They also maintain a gopher at owl.trc.purdue.edu and a WWW page at http://owl.trc.purdue.edu.PRINT RESOURCESThe following books include basic information on getting started with the Internet, and more resources for community college educators:

Ellsworth, Jill. EDUCATION AND THE INTERNET: A HANDS ON BOOK OF IDEAS, RESOURCES, PROJECTS AND ADVICE. Indianapolis, IN: Sams Publishing, 1994.

Fraase, Michael. THE MAC INTERNET TOUR GUIDE. Chapel Hill, NC: Ventana Press, 1993.

Hahn, Harley. THE INTERNET YELLOW PAGES. Berkeley, CA: Osborne McGraw-Hill, 1994.

Krol, E. THE WHOLE INTERNET: USERS GUIDE AND CATALOG, 2ND ED. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1994.

LaQuey, T. INTERNET COMPANION PLUS. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1993.

Levine, John R. and Baroudi, Carol. THE INTERNET FOR DUMMIES. San Mateo, CA: IDG Books, 1993.

Note: This digest was prepared in July, 1995. The Internet is volatile, and the addresses are subject to change. Check more recent resources if you are unable to connect to any of these services.

The ERIC Clearinghouse operates under OERI Contract No. RR93002003. The opinions expressed in this digest do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of OERI and no official endorsement by OERI should be inferred. Title: Internet Resources for Community College Practitioners. ERIC Digest. Document Type: Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); Descriptors: Community Colleges, Computer Interfaces, Computer Mediated Communication, Computer Networks, Database Producers, Databases, Educational Resources, Electronic Publishing, Information Sources, Online Systems, Search Strategies, Two Year Colleges Identifiers: ERIC Digests, Internet

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