For students studying about India, the Internet can bring immediacy and involvement to the learning experience. Multimedia resources from the Internet can add new dimension to printed course material. E-mail, listservs, and newsgroups open the door to communication in the global arena. With authoring software, it is possible to organize Internet resources into creative classroom presentations and demonstrations; to create multimedia tutorials; or to provide links to scholarly resources through a class Web page. Local and global development of the Internet dictates, to some degree, the extent to which the Internet can be used for study of foreign countries. While the Internet is firmly established in many Western countries, the Internet in India is only beginning to develop. Still, India is coming on-line very quickly, and the day is not far off when it could be possible to establish e-mail contact with students in India to share learning and life experiences, to work on collaborative projects, or to conduct joint research.
This article reviews a sample of Internet resources that could be applied to teaching about India, with reference to search tools to locate other resources, and to Web sites that strive for comprehensive coverage.
INTERNET RESOURCES ABOUT INDIA
WORLD WIDE WEB GENERAL SITE/SEARCH
Because of its graphic and audio capabilities, the World Wide Web has the widest range of resources. Web pages on India that include general, comprehensive lists linking to other Web pages offer an excellent overview of what’s available. The most comprehensive list of Web resources for India is the World Wide Web Virtual Library: India (http://webhead.com/WWW VL/India/) maintained by the Australian National University. The page, which is updated frequently, is divided into subject categories including: Art and Culture, History, Internet in India, Language, Literature, Maps, Music, Organizations, People, Religion, Sports, and States. A periodic check of WWWVL:India will keep you up-to-date on most of what’s new and interesting on the Web for India. Yahoo(http://www.yahoo.com/Regional/ Countries/India/) also provides links to
a wide variety of resources on India. Search tools like Alta Vista (http:// altavista.digital.com/), Inktomi (http://inktmi. berkley. edu/), and Excite (http:// www.excite.com/) are constantly being improved and turn up an abundance of material through keyword searching.