Claris Corporation markets a product called "Claris Home Page". It is an authoring/editing tool for the creation of HTML documents. HTML is a "mark-up language" that specifies the form and action of Web pages worldwide. I predict that more and more instruction will be created, displayed, and assessed on the World Wide Web. If this prediction is accurate, then teachers, administrators, and even students will need a proficiency in authoring on the Web. In short, there is a large market for web authoring, and Claris Home Page is a very useful tool for fulfilling the market need.
Home Page is known as a "WYSIWYG" tool. In computer/technology speak, this acronym translates as follows: "What You See Is What You Get". To the beginning user, this term means that the layout (including the "look and feel") of the document in the editor window will appear similarly in one's browser window. A browser, for example, might be Netscape or Internet Explorer. The benefit of WYSIWYG tools is that they are very intuitive and do not demand from the user a large knowledge base of technical information such as HTML code. It should be noted that a document layout in Home Page is approximately how it will appear in a browser. Therefore, eventually users can benefit from knowing HTML in order to "tweak" (fine tune) their layout. For simple designs, this may not be necessary.
Home Page also has a small learning curve. By this, I mean that one does not need to invest huge amounts of time to learn how to use the program. Subtle and sophisticated features can be learned fairly easily once the basics have been learned. Personally, I use the manual only as a reference. I was able to utilize two rather advanced features of HTML (forms and image maps) with minimal reliance on the manual.
Lastly, Home Page enables documents to be edited rather easily. The author simply double clicks on whatever he/she wants to edit (table, image, or a link), and a separate pop-up editing window appears. This window easily facilitates changes in dimensions (pixel ratios) and destination (URL's). Coupled with the Mac O/S "Drag 'N Drop" capabilities, editing is reduced to a much simpler task.
Thus, Claris Home Page is a valuable and flexible tool for Web authoring. I believe that teachers can very effectively create documents for the WWW in the areas of instruction. Administrators could use this tool for creating documents for professional development for view by many. The ease with which this tool can be used is clearly its biggest advantage. Given the fact that technologies such as video and audio can be "embedded" in Web pages makes it even more promising for instruction and professional development. One can envision the creation of a "library" of text, images, sounds, and video for various instructional purposes. It is a quick and efficient means of disseminating information.
Once a Web document is created, it needs to be accessible for others to view in their browsers. Claris Home Page can be used to send documents to servers to which one has access. Another program entitled Fetch is a little more sophisticated and hence more useful for accomplishing these goals. Fetch is very easy to use because it utilizes a graphical interface. Documents (including image, text, audio, and quick time movie files) can be transmitted via the Internet and stored on file server space. This process is abbreviated FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Fetch allows a user to create "bookmarks" so that the exact path to a particular file can be retraced expediently. For example, a single file may be stored in a folder which may have several directories and subdirectories. Fetch can "learn" this path by storing the information as a bookmark.
Teachers now have two tools which can be used in conjunction with one another -- an authoring tool to facilitate development of web pages and a tool to facilitate the "moving" and "storing" of documents. If a teacher wants to improve his/her document or to update the document with current and relevant information, the process is now straightforward. The teacher either works from their own personal copy at their desktop and then sends it to the server space, or they first retrieve the document from the server space, edit it, and then send it back.
In summary, the Internet has potential for teacher and curriculum development. Personally, I feel these topics are intertwined. By making information readily assessable to many, one can envision vast "networks" in which professionals can share, support, and grow with other professionals. Claris Home Page and Fetch can be used in conjunction with other "Internet Tools" to provide a wide array of communication specific techniques for harnessing the Internet.
Many of the tools mentioned here and in other chapters are discussed in more detail on this resource page.
In my opinion, the Web's presence in modern education cannot be overlooked. It is a powerful medium with many inherent strengths and weaknesses. As a collective body, professional educators need to examine how best to utilize this resource.
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