"Those concerned with helping young people develop inquiry skills might also want to consider matching teaching and learning styles with various resources and approaches to content. At present, most websites concentrate on providing resources, but some do provide commentary, opinions, questions, or interactive capabilities. School or library sites, for instance, might set as their purpose any of the following:"To offer additional resources that supplement existing curricular materials, either for greater depth or for alternative perspectives on a topic.
"To select a particular event in history and look at that event from multiple perspectives, raising a variety of questions and providing resources as a model for approaches that students might take in their research. For example, the incarceration of Japanese-Americans in re-location camps during the second World War might be explored from the personal perspectives of the incarcerated as well as of those in government and the military. It might also be examined as an example of mass hysteria, bigotry, opportunism for monetary gain, and the vilification of those who appear different. [Footnote: Readers will find an additional example on Christopher Columbus in my Power Teaching. Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 1994, pp.60-65.]
"To fill in gaps of knowledge that may extend the understanding of a literary text. For instance, young people who read and enjoy Lyddie may gain both greater appreciation of that story and of U.S. history by learning about the New England mill girls, labor conditions, and views of women in that setting. Readers' responses to science fiction and works of authors such as William Sleator may be enhanced through learning about the scientific principles underlying the stories.
"To develop opportunities for students to explore topics that are neglected or given only superficial coverage within the school curriculum. For instance, a web page or pages might be devoted to specific instances of historical controversies related to human rights such as the trials of Joan of Arc, the Chicago Seven, Emma Goldman, the Rosenbergs, and Sacco and Vanzetti. [Footnote: An early exploration of hypermedia in realtion to a literary text that also focuses on the Sacco and Vanzetti case is found in my article, "Hypermedia: Breaking the Tyranny of the Text," School Library Journal. Vol. 35 (November 1988): 30-36.]
"To help young people realize that there is no one right answer to frequently asked questions by examining how such answers are skewed by different resources, different media, different perspectives and different points in time.
"To match and extend the content of an existing website with additional content or an alternative approach. For instance, a fifteen-year-old girl wrote about women in Arthurian legends for the Booklook website, [Footnote: This can be found at http://bcn.boulder.co.us/library/bpl/child/booklook/women.html] Boulder, Colorado Public Library, which matches and extends Edward Sullivan's Medieval World homepage.
"To develop the kind of bookwebs now being created by students and teachers in whole language programs [Footnote: For those unfamiliar with book webs, see my Power Teaching. Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 1994, pp.50-53; 77-100.] as sites on the world wide web.
"To demonstrate how to search a wide range of biographical tools and reviewing media for information and commentary about favorite authors and books.
"After considering these questions one must still recognize that to create a website a decision depends on many additional factors, such as, knowing what is already available on the Web, identifying a potential audience, [Footnote: Given the global nature of the WWW, the audience may be anyone in any place in the world. The primary audience, however, may be a local community accessing a particular website for information relevant to that community. Languages may also be a primary concern for a website in a community where more than one language predominates.] determining sufficient quality content for that audience, and accessing a server for a new website. [Footnote: The organization that provides access to the Internet can usually also function as the Web Server. Web browsers such as Netscape are available free to schools and public libraries. It is important to note that direct access to the server, that is, loading and removing web pages, may be tightly monitored by managers of net servers. Information on servers, including commercial servers, is available in many of the books in the bibliography.]