The fact that you are looking at this page suggests that you have an interest in how others are using the Internet/multimedia to enhance learning in the geosciences. Please take a few minutes to respond to a survey.

I have been collecting URLs for about 5 years and continue to struggle with how to portray this information so that it is useful to the reader and relatively easy for me to maintain.

I have decided to provide several options:

1. If you are a "new user" and trying to get an idea as to how your peers are using the Internet to help create and sustain learning environments, stay on this page and look through what I consider to be good places to visit to get ideas - Good Practices. Then you may wish to extract information from the database in (2) that follows this list.
   1. Course Resources
   2. Analytical Resources
   3. Departmental Committment
   4. Handouts
   5. Homework and Laboratory Exercises
   6. Image Collections
   7. On-Line Geoscience Courses
   8. Resource Materials
   9. Student Projects
   10. Virtual Field Trips

2. As of November 16, 1999 there are approximately 2,200 geoscience course resources stored in a FileMakerPro database. If this is your first time to use this service please take a few minutes to read about the structure of this database.

   The resources have been arranged according to broad categories with each category subdivided into content-based subcategories.

   The purpose of this page is to focus on those resources which illustrate good practices and might be adopted by, or prove suggestive, to others. Clearly, there is an element of personal judgment in producing such lists and the author bears full responsibility for the contents. I am always interested in being aware of new resources and will gladly accept nominations.

   Each record includes the following information:

   1. The name of the producer of the resource
      
   2. The name of the resource
      
   3. The URL of the resource
      
   4. The URL of the producer
      
   5. The Category
      
   6. The Subcategory
      
   7. Good Practice Tag

   The following Categories are represented in the data structure:
   1. Analytical - primarly tools, software, jave applets, etc.
   2. Course Resources - Internet-based resources that accompany geoscience courses ~1,200 of the 1,700 resources
   3. Data - geoscience data sets
   4. Department - departments that have made a meritorious committment to distribute Internet-based resources
   5. Field Trips - opportunities for independent travel
   6. Handouts - supplementary material you might distribute to your students
   7. Homework - Internet-based homework and laboratory exercises
   8. Images - geoscience image collections
   9. Learning - resources devoted to learning strategies
   10. OnLine - geoscience courses delivered Online
   11. Resources - materials that you may want to make available to your students
   12. Student Projects - collections of Internet-based student projects

   For example, you could select Student Projects and receive a list of 14 references. if you also were to select Good Practices you would receive a list of 9 of these which are judged as good places to begin your exploration of how others are using the Internet as Student Projects.

   Each category is further classified into one of the following content-based Subcategories:

   A judgment was made as to where the resource would fit into the following subject matter areas. Clearly, this is a personal opinion and the user is encouraged to not restrict their searches to a single subcategory.

   1. Computers and Geology
   2. Earth System Science
   3. Earthquakes - freshman/sophomore level
   4. Economic Geology
   5. Environmental
   6. Field Trips - General
   7. Field Trips - Hard Rock and Structural
   8. Field Trips - Sedimentary and Structure
   9. Geochemistry
   10. Geology and the Internet
   11. Geology for Engineers
   12. Geomorphology
   13. Geophysics
   14. Glacial
   15. Global Change
   16. Good Practices
   17. Historical Geology
   18. Hydrogeology
   19. Learning
   20. Maps
   21. Mineralogy
   22. National Parks
   23. Oceanogrpahy
   24. Paleontology
   25. Petrography and Petrology
   26. Petroleum Engineering
   27. Physical
   28. Remote Sensing
   29. Space Geology
   30. Structural Geology
   31. Volcanoes

   You have the opportunity to view all entries in each of the categories and subcategories. The pull-down menues are connected by the and logical operator. Selecting the category Field Trip will display all of the virtual field trips in the database. Selecting the category Field Trip and Good Practices will display all virtual field trips that are judged to illustrate good practices. Selecting the category Field Trip and Good Practices and the key word volcano will display all records that meet the three criteria.

   FileMakerPro database

3. There are a number of general resources that focus on Computing and Learning and the Earth Sciences

   ANON - Another Node On the interNet
   [Resources for those interested in Geosciences, Mathematics and Computing]

   Successes in Creating Multimedia-Assisted Learning Environments - The Sage on the Stage Versus the Guide on the Side -- Yet Another Divide to Cross
   [Papers presented at the October, 1999 Meeting of the Geological Society of America Annual Meetings, Denver, Colorado]

   Creating Learning Environments with the Internet and Multimedia
   [Papers presented at the October, 1998 Meeting of the Geological Society of America Annual Meetings, Toronto, Canada]

   Macintosh Computer Applications in Undergraduate Geoscience Courses
   [Short courses (1995 and 1996) held at San Francisco State University in conjunction with the AGU Fall Meetings]

   Science and Mathematics Internet Courses and Course Resources
   [Resources for Life Sciences, Chemistry, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Mathematics and Physics]

It is imperative that we respect and protect the intellectual property of the individuals who designed and implemented the resources. I think it is proper to correspond with the individual if you want to use his/her resource for one of your exercises. Find out if they are prepared for what might be a fairly high demand on their server. It would be easy to strip out the text and accompanying images and put them on your server. This raises serious ethical issues. Perhaps the author would allow you to operate a "mirror" site. Most developers are proud of their efforts and it is always good form to ask.