Multimedia and Networks Teach About Museums - Issues in Maintaining a WWW Site to Facilitate Distance Learning

A wide array of technological resources was employed in teaching a 1995 course on the impact of multimedia and networks. The course, taught simultaneously at the University of Michigan and the University of California at Berkeley, examined the impact of new technologies from a variety of perspectives (including cultural, political, and social), and focused on that impact upon daily life and upon social and cultural institutions (such as museums,libraries, and schools). Cutting-edge technologies were used to conduct the course in the two sites, and to provide text and multimedia resources to enrolled students and to the general public. This paper reports on the experience of mounting multimedia information on the WorldWideWeb both for public consumption and to instruct students in the course. Paying particular attention to methods for making the information stand on its own without the presence of the instructor, the paper outlines a wide variety of issues, including: design concerns, technical limitations, and privacy issues. Concerns of ongoing maintenance of a WorldWideWeb site are dealt with in detail.