Hepner Hall, SDSU

Connectedness 2000: How the Internet Brings Together and Divides

General Atomics Fusion Energy Workshop

Kris Stewart, PhD
Professor of Computer Science
San Diego State University

Abstract: The Internet is a little over 30 years old, and computers are a little over 50 years old. These technologies have changed society and science, and many are still searching for ways to accentuate the positive and mitigate the negative. We will discuss resources for computational science available on the Internet and discuss classroom techniques that may be helpful for teachers. We will discuss Information Overload and share viewpoints on how to deal with this. We end with a personal historical view of events of the past half-century and invite your comments on how this might apply to you own personal view.

Net-Happenings email list archive

June 27, 2000 email provides a sample of this resource.

American Memory Historical Collections for the National Digital Library, from the U.S. Library of Congress

The Library of Congress' Bicentennial (1800-2000) celebration has been useful for me and my classes. Our students at SDSU were typically born after the birth of the Internet and it is important that students put the opportunities we have now in perspective.

Qwest North American Fiber Network

If you look at the Library of Congress collection of Railroad Maps, (e.g. Rr000540.sid) you will see a direct relationship with the high-speed fiber network underlying the Abilene network of Internet2.

Information Overload

At San Diego State U., I have been using my personal web page to share resources for the classes I teach. At SDSU our students have the luxury of using computer labs (mostly UNIX and Windows NT) which are connected to the campus backbone, which is coneected to the high speed Abilene network. When I teach my courses in the lab, I feel an obligation to address the issue of Information Overload and bring to our student's attention that they must challenge and validate everything available on the Wide World Web and fine ways that work, for them, to deal with all the information. I find the Who, What, Where, Why, When tradition from journalism to be a useful focus.
What do you think?

Digital California Project from Governor Gray Davis' Office

The Corporation for Education Network Initiative in California (a href="http://www.cenic.org">CENIC) had their recent conference in San Diego in May. You may find the CENIC: Leading the Way to Tomorrow's Internet a useful resource. The 4CNet CSU backbone network has connected the California Community Colleges and is now beginning to include the School Districts. I have been informed that the Grossmont School District will be hooked up soon. Teachers need support to make effective use of these new technologies, and I would like to hear your thoughts on how this might impact your school.

EOT-PACI is the Education, Outreach and Training resource

The EOT-PACI group from both of the Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI) of the Natinal Science Foudation. Today, Rozeanne Steckler and Mike Bailey have presented information on their activities with the National Partnership for Advanced Computing Infrastructure (NPACI). I would like to hear your thoughts on EOT Resources and the other projects, such as Shodor's Modeling and Simulation Tools for Education Reform MASTER, the Alabama Supercomputing Program to Inspire comutational Research in Education ASPIRE, the Maryland Virtual High School, GirlTECH/TeacherTECH, and more.
How about Explore Science [Rozeanne Steckler put up on the board] along with Science Gems. Mike Bailey had some great links in his talk - ChromaDepth and of the SDSC WebCenter: Education and Science Comes Alive! [3D Viewmasters reels]

A timeline of technology.

Thank you for the opportunity to reflect on my own personal activities and try to put them into perspective. My students at SDSU get tired of me reminding them of history, but I hope this perspective will be of use to you.

Kris Stewart, PhD
Professor of Computer Science
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA 92182-8050
619.594.0491
stewart@sdsu.edu
http://www.stewart.cs.sdsu.edu


Director
NPACI Ed Center on Computational Science
        & Engineering
http://www.edcenter.sdsu.edu