The Internet Encyclopedia of International Relations
ABOUT THE ENCYCLOPEDIA
The Internet Encyclopedia of International Relations
is a pilot project for The Public Politics Project. The director
of the project is Dr. James C. Roberts, Associate Professor of International
Relations and Director of International Studies, Department of Political
Science, Towson University.
The Public Politics Project will create a replicable
model for experiential learning in political science using the World Wide
Web and hypertext authoring of web pages as teaching tools. While
the Internet has become a valuable source for information about politics,
few teaching models exist that use the web as an interactive, experiential
learning tool. Most web-based teaching either uses the Internet as
an information source to provide links to other links about politics, or
uses the web as a transport to deliver prepared curricular material in
distance learning. The Public Politics Project will transform web-based
teaching by requiring students to take ownership of ideas and research,
and, through the web, provide those ideas to the rest of the world.
The vehicle for this teaching model is an encyclopedia of politics that
will be designed, developed, and implemented by students in political science
courses. Courses that use the instructional model will extend and update
this encyclopedia, giving students the experience of conducting real publishable
research and commentary in political science.
The teaching model will consist of course
materials that integrate interactive web research and development into
existing courses in core areas of political science. The project
will design and disseminate faculty training materials and a workbook for
students. By experiencing real political research and publication,
students will gain a clearer understanding of core political science concepts
and will acquire skills in writing, research, critical thinking, and web
publishing.
At this point in time, the project is only in its
development phase. We invite other universities and colleges to participate
in the project in the future. Participation will involve adopting
modules on hypertext authoring and giving students assignments to create
encyclopedia entries. The best encyclopedia entries will be selected
for internet publication. If you have questions or comments about
the project, please contact
Dr. James Roberts,
Department of Political Science,
Towson University, Towson, MD 21252
Phone: 410-830-3510
FAX: 410-830-2960
email: jroberts@towson.edu