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The Science Division Developmental Pages at Bellevue Community College

This is a Developmental WebSite associated with Science Division at BCC, and does not serve the Official Science Division Pages, the Bellevue Community College Home Page or the home page of the Northwest Center for Emerging Technology.

Those sites can be found at SciDiv.bcc.ctc.edu , www.BCC.ctc.edu and NWCET.bcc.ctc.edu respectively.

The server software is currently running on a PowerMac 8150 WorkGroup Server with a T1 line "out" and is used to present information to the BCC community. It is also used by our various home page construction teams to test ideas and techniques in an environment that is not "mission critical." This server is used primarily by folks associated with Science Division.

The server is located on the campus of Bellevue Community College in Bellevue, Washington across Lake Washington from Seattle. BCC, Washington's most comprehensive community college, is the third largest of the state's 48 public and private post-secondary institutions. The college serves approximately 16,000 students per quarter in nearly 70 program areas.


The Official Pages at BCC constitute a very useful combination of College Catalogue, Course Schedule, Application Bank, Advising Center and Current Events Calendar. Online registration and tuition payment are around the corner.

As useful as this is, the bulk of Web traffic on this campus will be generated by faculty. The pages they cook up will be associated with the classes they teach, with biographical and other material on their personal BCC website and with material related to the professional organizations to which they belong.

Faculty might publish class notes or, as student access becomes universal accept class assignments and make new ones through the Web. Checking the class page daily might be a requirement and an aid to students who must miss a day due to illness or other problems. Password security is available to allow or deny searches of folders and access to specific documents, chatrooms and forums. Reasonably secure online testing is a reality here. These tests can be made "self-grading" with detailed interactive responses if the faculty member wishes.

Those who have followed the pace of change these last years can't help but notice that distance (time to a "personal" visit) is a concept that is losing power. Horse and buggy were replaced by train and telegraph and car and phone and now, dramatically, by the Person-To-Person connections provided by the InterNet.

"Vast Bandwidth" is the final replacement.

I am standing in my living room having a cup of Hot Java. Murray Gell-Mann gestures and makes notes on the blackboard in front of me. He discusses his ruminations prior to the invention of the "Eight Fold Way." The clarity and size of the image allow me to forget that he is, physically, a thousand miles away. Could I not collaborate or (at least) learn as if he were actually there?

Might not our students learn from us in this way?

We are going to have the chance to find out the answer to this question. We are making it happen now. Faculty will have to help in the project if it is to succeed at BCC.

The library of ways that we teach and learn is changing so fast it makes many uncomfortable. It calls to mind that apocryphal curse - "May You Live In Interesting Times." Here we are. Make no mistake. It is here and faculty will adapt or not. We will remain involved in the decision-making process or we will not.

But there is some consolation - the water is warm. I recommend that we go surfing.

The attractiveness and utility of our pages will depend on the ingenuity and style of those who contribute. Let your ideas be known.


Send email to Larry Susanka, the technical manager of this site, at lsusanka@bcc.ctc.edu.


(This page was last modified on 3/8/98)
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