General Interest
Appropriately enough, this website is “dedicated to the men and women who made the U.S. Air Force what it is today.” As an official website of the United States Air Force, the Air Force Link Heritage website presents a wide range of materials that detail the history of this division of the Armed Forces. Here visitors will find a “This Week in History” feature which presents summary details of important events in the organization’s past, such as the dates of important test flights and important air battles. Within the “Categories” area, visitors can delve into Air Force history. Neatly divided into decades, each section allows visitors to view photographs of important persons in the Air Force during the period, along with documents that relate various aspects of the group’s history. Finally, the site also contains a set of links to other useful sites, such as the American Airpower Heritage Museum and the National Museum of Naval Aviation. [KMG]
The very notion of “just-in-time” (JiTT) teaching may seem to some to sound like a phrase adopted from the world of corporate culture, but in fact, it’s actually a “…teaching and learning strategy based on the interaction between web-based study assignments and an active learner classroom.” All told, it sounds pretty compelling, and this website, created by Professor Gregor and his colleagues at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has been designed to provide fellow educators with materials that will help them adopt such an educational stance and approach in the classroom. After reading the introductory section titled “What is JiTT?”, visitors may wish to proceed to look over the resources area, where they can look over JiTT resources that may be used with a variety of disciplines, including physics, psychology, and chemistry. [KMG]
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/
From William Howard Taft to Toledo, the Ohio History Central Online Encyclopedia is a veritable cornucopia of material about the places, events, and other elements of the Buckeye state’s history and lore. As noted on the site’s homepage, this encyclopedia “…is an evolving, dynamic online encyclopedia that includes information about Ohio’s natural history, prehistory and history.” That is certainly a tall order to fill, and the site does so admirably. Visitors can click on over to the built-in search engine on the homepage, or just browse along through such broad categories as “History”, “Natural History”, and “State Symbols”. Visitors to this last category may be intrigued to learn that the state’s beverage is tomato juice, or that the state’s official insect is the ladybug, a peaceful creature best known for its voracious appetite for aphids. [KMG]
Founded in 1994, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has been primarily concerned with “…developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web.” To do so, they draw on a set of international professionals and experts throughout the field of computer science and related fields. The W3C is led by Tim Berners-Lee, who directs the project and who was also responsible for inventing the World Wide Web. First-time visitors should take a look through the “New Visitors” area, which includes a basic overview of where to find certain materials, such as their technical reports and how to sign up for their mailing lists. Another way to look over some of their materials is by browsing their “A to Z” section on the homepage, which covers everything from accessibility to XML encryption. [KMG]
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/WI/subcollections/WaterfordLocHistAbout.shtml
Located west of Racine and southwest of Milwaukee, the town of Waterford, Wisconsin sits along the Fox River. In addition to its scenic location, Waterford also happens to have a vibrant public library that has worked with other local organizations to create this elaborate digital local history archive. Working in partnership with the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections, they have created this digital home for an array of maps, photographs, books, manuscripts, and other printed ephemera. The thematic headings include “community”, “maps”, and “people and portraits”. As the town served as a popular resort for decades, visitors will be delighted to learn that the archive has several dozen photographs of the various leisure pursuits that were popular throughout the town and its outlying areas. [KMG]
Baroque Engravings, Etchings & Woodcuts
http://artbma.org/exhibitions/online2.html#
Adapted from an exhibition shown at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2002 and 2003, the online version of Painted Prints explores the use of color in Renaissance prints. The idea for the exhibition began in 1996, when curator Susan Dackerman first saw a 16th century Dutch print The Triumph of Patience, by Dirck Volkertsz Coornhert. The research project that led to the 2002-2003 exhibition is featured as a section of the Web site, where visitors can read about Dackerman's investigations, and see the results of conservator Thomas Primeau's analysis of the pigments used in the colored prints as well. Primeau used X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) to identify the pigments used to color a painted impression of Albrecht Dürer's print Christ Presented to the People from The Large Passion. On the Web site there is an interactive example where rolling over the image brings up details of the pigments and their chemical makeup. In addition, there are sections about the makers of the prints, their purpose, lesson plans for teachers, and a gallery of a dozen painted prints. [DS]
http://science.nhmccd.edu/biol/animatio.htm
Many students appreciate visuals in the classroom, but in some instances, practical demonstrations of various scientific principles may be difficult, if not impossible. Fortunately there is this nice site, provided by North Harris College. The site functions as a clearinghouse for science animations created by a wide range of institutions from the University of Hawaii to Cambridge University. There is no search engine offered here, but visitors can just scroll down through the entire list, or jump around to such topical areas as microbiology, geology, ecology, and physics. Additionally, visitors can also avail themselves of the “General Collections” area, which feature broad animation collections, such as the “General Collection in Biology” site, created at the University of California-Irvine. [KMG]
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/caneriver/
Tucked away in the northwestern corner of Louisiana, the Cane River winds its way through a primarily rural and agricultural landscape. Over the past several hundred years, the many groups of people who have lived and worked by the river have transformed this landscape. Created by the National Park Service, in partnership with the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers, this website serves as a virtual tour guide to the Cane River National Heritage Area. First-time visitors should click on the interactive map offered here, as they can get the “lay of the land”, and also utilize this feature to learn about historic landmarks in the area, such as the Cherokee Plantation and Fort Jesup. Along with this mélange of photos, maps, and descriptive passages, visitors can also take a look at three concise essays that provide answers to such questions as “Who are Louisiana’s Creoles?” [KMG]
