Clicks for Classes

For a few weeks now, I've been developing a list of topics that come up in classes, and trying to find the best resources on the Internet for those topics. I call it "Clicks for Classes" for want of a better name.

Originally, the idea came as a response to the problem that arises when a student gets lost while trying to follow the same navigational path as the instructor. It's not all that easy to look at the screen, compare that with your monitor, and try to replicate the URL that is showing in the tiny address bar. Besides, the whole idea of linking on the Internet is that you don't have to type anything: you just click and there you are.

The result is a hybrid of old and new technologies. Clicks for Classes starts with a hyperlink which I copy into a program that adds it, along with a general subject heading, into a table that is automatically formatted as a web page. The latest link is always at the bottom. When a new link gets added, all of the others are sorted by subject, and the table is rewritten. The FTP (file transfer protocol) command that is built into Windows sends the updated page to my server, where it becomes available, usually in ten seconds from the time of pasting.

To keep the links current, I periodically run a link checker, Xenu. If a link becomes broken or outdated, it's usually not difficult to find a good substitute.

The links are available from the START menu at the Fairfield Branch Computer Lab. At home if you find them useful, enter the address one time, go to the website, and add it somewhere to your IE favorites, or Netscape Bookmarks. At some point, when the page gets too long, it will become a page on a website, indexed by subject keyword.