Chemical Education Today
Editorial: Fount of Information, Vanity Press, or Intellectual Tool? face communication and to greatly enlarge the number of The World Wide Web continues to be in the news both such collaborations. A similar argument can be made by generally and in chemical education. There has been a symchanging the word “researchers” to either “students” or posium on the web at almost every recent ACS national “teachers”. There are already a great many innovative and meeting, a number of papers have appeared in this Joureffective uses of the web to expand communities of chemnal, and the number of educational web sites is growing exists and chemistry students. I know of one instance where ponentially. But is the web really the vanguard of the infora group of faculty at small colleges that otherwise would mation age or is it just a way for all of us to publish whatlack a critical mass of stuever we want? dents has arranged for stuIn an article titled “More Information, dents to interact via the web Less Credibility” my Sunday newspaper (1) and email. This is an ongoing quotes several pundits on the web. “It’s more The web … faces all of us with the process that is being refined than we can handle. It’s coming at us faster perennial problem of the freshman and improved, but it certainly than we can possibly fathom”—Carol uses the web to good advanKoehler, University of Missouri–Kansas City. chemistry student: getting a drink tage. “It’s easier to get information today than ever from a fire hose. In support of its goal of before, [but] it’s harder to get the right inforbuilding the community of mation”—Tom Rosenstiel, former Los Angechemical educators, your Journal has been publishing on les Times media critic. “[There is] a flood of dubious inforthe web for some time (5). We have been using email for mation on the Internet…”—Brooke Shelby Biggs, media colreturn of manuscript reviews for about a year, with kudos umnist for the online magazine HotWired. from both editors and reviewers. Some have argued that the In an article titled “Web of Deceit” a computer magaweb obviates the need for peer review (6). Why don’t we just zine (2) describes web sites that appear to be providing untell everyone to put whatever they want onto the web and biased, independent information, but whose fine print indilet the community decide whether it is valuable or not? My cates sponsorship by companies that are selling products problem with that approach is related to many of the comthe sites recommend. And there are other sites whose chief ments above. Most of us don’t have time to evaluate the acfunction is to obtain personal or family information from curacy of everything that we might come across on the web, net surfers—many of them children. Your online habits— and we need things organized in a way that helps us find where you click and when—can be recorded by “cookies” what we want. High quality work by reviewers and editors sent surreptitiously to your computer. Owners of the web helps us find accurate information quickly and easily. That’s sites may use the information to make their offerings work what a journal is all about. better for you, or they may use it to profile your preferences But how about applying the web to the peer review proand sell them to others. cess in a creative way? In the near future, under Jon Though it might seem premature for a historian to be Holmes’s able direction, JCE Internet will begin a process interested in the web, at least one is. In The Key Reporter, of open review. Papers will be posted online for review, newsletter of Phi Beta Kappa, Gertrude Himmelfarb (3) reader-reviewers will be able to comment directly to the sees an electronic revolution that is affecting “… the nature author or anonymously via the Journal, and when, in the of learning and education.” This revolution is “… salutary— editor’s opinion, an adequate evaluation has been made, the up to a point. But, like most revolutions, it tends to go bepaper will be accepted and moved to a different area of JCE yond that point.” That point is where democratization of acInternet. Check the News area of JCE Online for more incess to knowledge turns into democratization of knowledge formation about this process. itself. In Himmelfarb’s words, “In cyberspace, every source The web is certainly a fount of information, but it faces seems as authoritative as every other.” Because of this, “It all of us with the perennial problem of the freshman chemtakes a discriminating mind … to distinguish between the istry student: getting a drink from a fire hose. The web is trivial and the important, the ephemeral and the enduring, also a vanity press extraordinaire—or an instance of comthe true and the false.” She sees the web as appropriate for plete democratization of knowledge. But neither of these amassing facts but inimical to thinking seriously about aspects should prevent us from exploring, defining, and reideas. fining its role as a very powerful intellectual tool that all of These arguments are valid, but they do not imply that us in chemical education can use to advantage. we ought to ignore the internet. Even though you can read about spontaneous human combustion, it is possible to find reasoned discussions of such topics, some of which may even promote critical thinking. (See for example http:// dcn.davis.ca.us/~btcarrol/skeptic/shc.html and http:// Literature Cited www.heimbaugh.com/death/spontaneous.human. combustion/.) Some books from well-known publishers have 1. Canon, S. Wisconsin State Journal Sunday, July 27, 1997, p 1B. been debunked on the web (http://dcn.davis.ca.us/ 2. Chapman, F. S. PC World August 1977, 145. ~btcarrol/skeptic/philadel.html). Teaching students to ap3. Himmelfarb, G. Key Reporter 1997, 62(3), 1–5. 4. King, E. Scientific Computing & Automation July 1996, pp 41–42. proach any source of information with healthy skepticism 5. Lagowski, J. J. J. Chem. Educ. 1995, 72, 957. is good, and the incredible expansion of information avail6. News report in Science 1997, 276, 1035. able via the internet makes it even more important. A strong argument can be made (4) that the most effective use of the web in science will be to foster collaboration among groups of researchers who are not in face-to-
Vol. 74 No. 9 September 1997 • Journal of Chemical Education
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