JAVA, Super Browsers, and the Virtual Classroom

In the beginning there was Hypercard. With Hypercard instructors could create instructional modules that were multimedia and interactive. On this campus, Jerry Nelson's AG ECON 100 and Burks Oakley's Circuit Tutor programs led the way. Toolbook allowed Hypercard-like modules to be run on IBMs. Software such as Macromind Director extended the slickness and multimedia capabilities of these programs.

Enter The World Wide Web. The Web created a world-wide hypertext accessible on both IBMs and MACs. The Web is Hypercard gone global and cross-platform. NCSA Mosaic made it easy to surf the Web and caused its explosive growth.

The Virtual Classroom. Class home pages on the Web allowed students to access class resources anytime, anywhere. The Web is known as a rich educational resource, but is regarded as more static than dynamic. Instructors complement their home pages with e-mail or conferencing software to create a virtual classroom.

The Netscape Craze. A clone of Mosaic, Netscape 1.1 leaped ahead of accepted HTML standards by creating its own, pulling competing browsers along in its wake. The recent Netscape 2.0b1 beta release continued this process by introducing frames. Frames allows a more hypercard-like environment. The capability to display dazzling other features was promised in the full release 2.0 version; we are beginning to see this now that JAVA and Shockwave documents are supported by the present betas. Enhanced mail and Newsgroup access features are also now available, creating the possibility for class home pages as true integrated environments where students can do it all. The conferencing features promised by Netscape will be another step in this direction. In general, Netscape 2.0 will continue to lead the innovations race, but other browsers will follow suit and extend capabilities. Netscape "Gold" promises easy authoring and revising of WWW documents from within Netscape.

JAVA! A SUN team labored to develop a platform-independent programming language to bring interactivity to TV via special set-top boxes. Losing a contract for such, they applied their lessons to the Web. The hottest thing on the Web (says Larry Smarr), JAVA 'applets' are self-contained programs that can be downloaded and viewed anywhere via the Web. For the Virtual Classroom, JAVA means animated interactive home pages with: spreadsheets, rotating molecules, real-time stock ticker feeds, nuclear power plant simulations, and 3-D biological models. The recently announced JAVA Script will help you program your own applets.

Super Browsers of 1996. The term "Super Browser" refers to browsers that emulate and extend Netscape 2.0 features. Many such projects are underway. Watch out for something called NCSA Montage. Competing standards are being pursued by Microsoft (Blackbird Project).

The Virtual Classroom. Some instructors are already designing class home pages to be viewable by the Super-Browsers of 1996, and already writing JAVA applets and exploring other possible features. Class home pages in 1996 could include:

• JAVA applets
• Frames
• VRML 3-D spaces,
• Acrobat PDFs
• Quicktime videos
• Shockwave modules
• Teleconferencing & Internet phone.

Generic class home page templates ( such as VCI ) will allow instructors to plug their own class materials into ready-to-go pages, and add in the preceding advanced features as they desire.

Recent Books and Articles
"Programming HOT JAVA Applets: Executable Content becomes a Reality." John Rodley. Dr. Dobb's Journal. #242, Dec. 1995

"Java Saga." David Bank. Wired. December 1995

JAVA! Tim Ritchey. Indianapolis: New Riders, 1995.

Presenting JAVA: An Introduction to JAVA and HOT JAVA. John December. Indianapolis: Sams.net Publishing, 1995

Online Resources