About Nursing and the Internet

Rationale:

To convince nursing instructors and their students WHY they should learn to use the Internet.
To initiate the hands-on process of learning to use the Internet.
To demonstrate the Internet without needing to be networked.
This production is designed primarily to be an introduction to the Internet by example. Generalized instruction about the Internet is difficult because of differences in student expertise, the client and server hardware and software available to them, and the cultures and needs of various disciplines. The Internet instructional needs of a high school civics class teacher who may be using Apple II computers as dumb terminals to access the Internet are much different from the needs of the university professor looking for genetic sequences via the World Wide Web on an Internetworked Pentium machine.

Experience has taught me that the most effective Internet instruction combines hands-on experience with addressing a local environment, rather than the universe. This production, in addressing the specific academic discipline of nursing, is an attempt to localize the instruction process. It is not a comprehensive utility for learning to do research on the Internet about resources of use to nursing students, nor does it attempt to create immediate Internet expertise in them. It starts the process of learning, points to real resources on the Internet which can be explored during instruction, and even contains information of intrinsic value.

The entire set of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) files comprising this production are designed to run in a stand-alone environment. Specifically, they can be loaded into a single directory on a PC's hard-drive, then accessed as a local file via a conventional World Wide Web browser (e.g., Netscape). They can also be loaded in the directory of a local Web server. This allows demonstration of the Internet without requiring one to be on the Internet. It also allows instructors to take advantage of the higher speed transfers typical of their local network environment.

For a list of, and access to, all files comprising this production, select the COPYRIGHT link at the bottom of any file.