EDITORIAL: The Internet and physics

Feature Issue Editor

The World Wide Web has been described as a `distributed heterogeneous collaborative multimedia information system'. It began as a networked information project at CERN, where Tim Berners-Lee, now Director of the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C], developed a vision of the project. The Web has a body of software and a set of protocols and conventions. Through the use of hypertext and multimedia techniques, the Web is easy for anyone to roam, browse and contribute to. It was developed by physicists at CERN to fulfil a communication need, and is one of the fastest growing resources worldwide. The number of available sites increases hourly, the ability to find information becomes easier, and contacting anyone with an e-mail address is as easy as picking up the telephone and talking to them.

A pupil researching a project on say `alternative energy' simply launches a web browser with the relevant search criteria. Some 13 500 references later they cut and paste sections together and, hey presto, they have their article. The teacher, on the other hand, has to discern what input to this work the pupil has made! What credit should be given for such an attempt? I believe we are going to have to teach how to value a site, by comparing it with other similar sites and exercising some judgement on what we find. Using a search with `physics' as my only keyword found more than 3.5 million references! Clearly the researcher has to become discerning, being judge and jury as it were.

Will the Internet catch on? I fear so, is the simple answer. However, I am concerned that with so much information available the ability to discern quality sites from inferior ones and fact from fiction will become a major issue for educationalists. Pupils are going to have to be taught how to assess a site, how to judge its validity and learn to give correct references in their reports. Because Internet sites are ephemeral, a reference given today may not be active next week. Indeed, it is true for this edition of Physics Education: all the sites given were checked before publication. However, we cannot be held responsible for non-availability of a site, should the service provider decide to remove or archive that particular page. Any user surfing the net must be prepared for the message File Not Found. The requested URL was not found on this server.

Why is looking for information on the Internet referred to as surfing? It has been suggested that you are looking for the ultimate wave/site - the one that answers your questions or gives you that special information. It is certainly addictive, and when a good site is found it is very rewarding. I find the analogy with surfing particularly accurate, as most of my time is spent in the water splashing around! When you do get on the board, the thought of jumping from country to country as you click on each hypertext link is quite exhilarating. The wealth of information you have access to is awesome, defying comprehension. Finding a good book, article, reference or person to help you, makes it more than justify its existence.

Looking for fellow teachers of physics could not be easier. PEERS (Physics Encyclopaedia of E-mail Records), the database of physicists maintained by IOP, should be a wonderful resource for teachers, industrialists or anyone linked with physics. I decided to find out how many schools had registered themselves with PEERS. I constructed a search of Type of Institution: School and found 113 records, but then refined my search to Country: UK and Subject: Physics and was amazed to find only 23 records. Rest of the world 90, UK 23! I suggest the moment you put this journal down you go and register with PEERS (http://www.iop.org/cgi-bin/PEERS/main); it is FREE!

At a recent IOP update course in Oxford, I was pleased to see most lecturers using laptops linked to video projectors to give their presentations, and references were made to sources of information on the WWW. With the availability of lecture notes, worksheets, examination courses, databases and virtual libraries all on the Internet, a new breed of education is being spawned. If previous generations have remembered the coming of the motor car, flight and the steam engine, clearly the 1990s must be attributed to the World Wide Web.

So, what of the future? Clearly the Internet is not going to go away, and we as educators are going to have to tame the beast. I hope books will still be valued and often ask myself how we teach such appreciation. With the availability of complete Sc1's on the Internet, or essays for the Nuffield Research & Analysis ready for downloading, our present examination structure will need some rethinking ....

... and finally: We are all very busy people; if you have spent two hours finding a good site, please let us know, so we may publish it in a future issue. We are very bad at communicating/sharing our ideas, and the WWW has given us the perfect tool - let us use IT!

Good physics sites to: ped@ioppublishing.co.uk

Happy surfing!