The Internet is a network for learning, not merely a means for
disseminating information. During its early days, most activity
was oriented towards the dissemination of information. But as
the Net developed, greater emphasis was placed on learning. Today
we are seeing the sprouting of dynamic learning tools. In the
future, broadband will allow real video for even better learning.
Information
At the beginning, almost every website offered information of
some sort. The information was presented as:
> FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions were ubiquitous. Sometimes
these FAQs listed user questions, But mostly, website owners
concocted the questions and presented the answers. Fortunately,
the use of FAQs has decreased considerably, except perhaps on
product support pages
> CHECK LISTS - Soon the lists became more useful. They indicated
things to be considered in planning, buying, designing, building,
maintaining or doing specific tasks
> PICTURES - Pictures were originally included on some sites
as decoration. But more and more they are now used to provide
information: officers of a company, sightseeing locations, images
of products
> DRAWINGS AND CHARTS - Drawings were used to explain products.
Charts were used a great deal by the financial community to depict
financial events
> ARTICLES - We soon realized that lists and illustrations
are not enough. We began to write articles on every aspect of
the Internet and on every aspect of the products and services
we were selling. Today we are in the "age of articles". They
are everywhere
Learning
After a few years on the Net, more people realized that a website
should not present information but enable visitors to learn.
They realized that visitor learning is the key.
Visitors learned directly from the website or through experts
related to or visiting the website. In the latter category are:
> EXPERT SITES - A visitor asks a question or presents a problem
and an expert replies
> DISCUSSION BOARDS - A continous discussion of issues or problems
in a given field
> MAILING LISTS - Similar to Discussion Boards, but executed
via email
Discussion boards and mailing lists have an additional virtue:
They enable the building of a community (deserving of a separate
article).
To learn directly from the website, we have used:
> QUIZES - The questions on a given quiz enabled the quiz taker
to determine aptitude for art or business, to discover whether
he needed a product or service, or to assess his status with
regards to insurance or investment
> TEMPLATES - These were used to define a format, a procedure,
a way of doing things. For example, templates have be used to
define a business plan. All a user need do is follow the template
and fill in his own detail to preparae his own business plan
> CALCULATORS - On sites dealing with real estate, finance,
engineering and other areas where numbers are important, you
would find calculators that enable visitors to do their own figuring
and thus learning.
> MODELS AND SIMULATORS - Sites selling sophisticated products
and services may have presented a model or simulator which the
visitor may use for learning. For example, some investment sites
used a simulator to enable a visitor to invest fictitiously and
see how his investment develops over time
> EBOOKS - Why not combine many of the above elements into
a focused ebook? Ebooks are available on a parade of subjects
Dynamic Learning
Dynamic sites, sites with oscillating banners, turning spheres
or flashing alphabet letters, have become very common in the
last year or two. But none of thse things has contributed to
the improvement of visitor learning.
The ViewletBuilder, by Qarbon.com, is the exception. Here you
have a software package that enables you to build a learning
sequence of slides showing how to accomplish a specific task
or procedure. Although the viewlets can be impressive, this is
not their primary purpose. They are vehicles for learning. Dynamic
learning.
To obtain an idea of how valuable something like the ViewletBuilder
may be, visit JimWorld's Free Site Templates, at http://www.freesitetemplates.com.
Here he has a large number of viewlets - some made by Jim, some
made by others - to help you in designing and building a website.
He calls them templates. Here are 5 of the many topics covered:
> HTML
> FLASH
> FrontPage
> Paint Shop Pro
> Dreamweaver
Among the companies using ViewletBuilder (according to their
website) are Proctor and Gamble, Home Depot, Sony and Cnet.
Future Learning
The dynamic way to learn in the future will, of course, be from
videos. But for videos to be used by Learning Fountans, the cost
of broadband would need to decrease enough to make it available
to the vast majority of Internet users. This may take some time.
In the meantime, the ViewletBuilder and competing products will
do fine. Remember, a visitor may access a viewlet with a 56K
modem and without having to download a plug-in.
About the Author
Paul -the soarING- Siegel is a provocative Internet speaker and