COMPUTERS: THEY AREN'T JUST FOR TECHIES ANYMORE. I began to collect URLs (addresses for sites on the Internet) during the summer of 1997 when HCC bought a new Macintosh 6500 for my office. From jotting down URLs on bits of scratch paper, to tearing them from newspapers, to going through directories (online and off), I started this list to encourage my ESL students to get involved with and to use the Internet.Source: Material created by Chuck Whitley, Honolulu Community College ESL instructor. Reprinted with permission.
We all know that society is being profoundly changed by the Internet and that these changes will continue. I don't think any of us can understand the depth of these changes, nor can we understand exactly what they will lead to in the future. We can, however, understand that these changes are likely to be good for some people and possibly not so good for others, i.e., those who don't have the knowledge and/or skill to use the Internet or those who don't, or think they don't, have access to it. (Actually anyone with access to almost any library these days also has access to the Internet, since most libraries have at least one computer that is online and which library visitors can use.) To help keep society's playing field as level as possible for everyone, it is absolutely critical to encourage as many people as possible to learn to use the Internet and to make it a part of their lives. My personal feelings on that subject led me to expand this list so that it would be both interesting and helpful not only to my ESL students, but to the entire HCC community.
When you use this list for your own site-seeing, don't be surprised if any (or some, or most) of these Internet sites aren't available when you try to access them. A site can be unavailable for five minutes (for an update), or forever (for lack of money), and you probably won't know which is which when your computer informs you that you can't access it. Try again later the same day, the next day, or the next week, or just forget it and look for other similar sites. The Internet and its contents are anything but static and sometimes sites can seem to appear and disappear overnight. The good news, I think, is that those sites that are especially useful are likely to stay longer because they get more visitors, and, for the most part, that's exactly what happens. The other good news is that hundreds more will be up next week.
Neither the categories here, nor the sites themselves, are intended to be all-inclusive. Both the categories and the sites are intended to serve as examples of what is available and to encourage the use of the Internet by people in all fields. Do you know of Internet sites that might be useful for the HCC community? Especially sites with lots of information that HCC students can use? I'm planning to update this list every semester, so if you have (or find) any sites that you'd like to share, e-mail me their names and URLs (charlesw@hcc.hawaii.edu). When I do an update, if I agree that the sites are useful, I'll put them in the collection and put your name on a list of names of people who contributed.
A lot of thanks to my friend Kay Gramaldi, who is supervisor of the HCC computer labs. I owe her a lot for her continuing help and support. If Kay had not introduced me to Macs and helped me so much in my ongoing learning process, I probably would have never put a virtual foot into cyberspace.
Chuck Whitley
ESL@HCC
Honolulu, Hawaii
Summer, 1998