Re: websites

[Maurice Barnhill <mvb@UDEL.EDU>]

Barlow Newbolt wrote:
> Gang:
>         I wanted to reply to the thread about websites.  It seems
> to me that many good points are begin made.  One in
> particular is important.  It seems that anyone with a PC
> and who can write html can put up a website and choose his
> own content.  This does not tell us anything about the
> quality of the information.  What is really needed is
> someone to review all this information and try to separate
> the good from the bad.  Unfortunately, that is a very long
> job and few of us have the time or the inclination to take
> it on.               WBN

Exactly.  In fact, at the moment more interesting material is placed on
the web each day than anyone could possibly review, and it is
economically if not physically impossible to have all of it certified by
an expert.  So each reader has to learn to recognize which pages are
likely to be reliable and which are not.  I don't think that task is
impossible -- I believe I can do it adequately when I am looking for
information outside physics.  Can we find a way to teach that skill to
students?  Can we develop tools to check out our own skill in areas
outside our own expertise?
--
Maurice Barnhill, mvb@udel.edu
http://www.physics.udel.edu/~barnhill/
Physics Dept., University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716