Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 17:42:08 -0700
To: web-eye
From: levine@maricopa.edu
Subject: Newest Bag of URLs
Cc: 
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 __     __ __     __ __     __  web's eye view (October 11, 1999)
| | /| / /| | /| / /| | /| / /  alan levine                        
| |/ |/ / | |/ |/ / | |/ |/ /   Maricopa Center for Learning & Instruction
|__/ |__/ |__/|__/  |__/|__/    http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/eye/
===========================================================================

The freshest bag of URLs is ready for pickup at

   http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/eye/bag/curr.html



Check Those Assumptions At the Web Door
=======================================
| STUDENTS LIKE THE WEB, SORT OF The common belief that all
| college students are comfortable using the Internet and that
| Web marketers have succeeded in attracting this segment to
| their sites is not entirely true.  In fact, portals that
| target college students by offering personals, chat rooms,
| articles about college life, and e-commerce deals are not
| especially appealing to students.  Instead of visiting these
| portals, which some students say are neither interesting nor
| useful, many students are using the Web to access news from
| back home, to find jobs, to invest, and to shop.  In
| addition, many students use the Web for school-related
| purposes, such as e-mailing professors, obtaining class
| notes, conducting research for projects, and even taking
| classes in some instances. However, many students still
| dislike the Internet and either do not use it or find it
| difficult to navigate. (Wired News 10/04/99) 
http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/school/story/22063.html


Design Tips from AlertBox
=========================

| The Alertbox for October 3 is now online
|
| Ten design elements that would increase the usability of
| virtually all websites if only they were employed more
| widely.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/991003.html


Search in Vain, Why?
====================

| Survey shows web search engines not meeting user needs
| 
| University Park, Pa. --- A just-published survey of Web
| search engine users shows that many of us lack the
| motivation to use sophisticated search strategies, resist
| learning the complex systems and rules, and expect Web
| search engines to create effective searches automatically.
| As a result, we often conduct repetitive, fruitless searches
| on the same topic -- but, hey, it's not our fault.
| 
| Dr. Amanda Spink, Penn State associate professor of
| information science and technology, says, "When the design
| for digital libraries, information retrieval systems and
| various search engines are driven by technological criteria
| and algorithms, they are found lacking in many respects when
| encountered, used and evaluated by users."
| 
| In other words, those high-powered features on Web search
| engines were created by geeks for geeks. It's no wonder that
| the rest of us just try the same old simple strategies over
| and over again, hoping some useful information will turn up.
http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/psu-ssw100499.html


$cholar$hip Money Online
========================

| SCHOLARSHIPS COULD BE JUST A CLICK AWAY
| Students, with the help of specialized Web sites, are
| increasingly using the Internet to search and apply for all
| kinds of scholarships.  Misty Burton, for instance, set up
| an e-mail account through fastWEB scholarship service. 
| Several opportunities emerged, and she won the Ty Cobb
| Scholarship worth $2,000.  FastWEB, one of the largest free
| scholarship sites on the Internet, is among the many
| scholarship services on the Web that assist students in
| their search for school funding.  Other such sites include
| CollegeNET, College Board Online, FreSch!, and Embark.com. 
| FastWEB asks students to answer a lengthy questionnaire and
| then sends an e-mail to the applicant listing various
| scholarships that match the student's criteria.  The site
| last year alone reported 1.4 million people using the
| service. (Access Magazine 10/03/99)

http://www.finaid.org/