The Internet--the information super highway--has been hailed by many as an important information source in the educational process and will become increasingly so in the future. Indeed, there are extant descriptions of apparently innovative uses of modern interactive communications technologies in the education of scientists at the undergraduate level. However, anyone who has attempted to obtain information from the Internet knows that you are as likely to find garbage as you are to find quality information. Webster tells us that garbage is "worthless or nonsensical matter; rubbish; inferior or offensive material; incorrect, meaningless, or unwanted information." An eye for discrimination, which is often a reflection of maturity, is essential when using the current Internet. In other words, because a bit of information appears on the Internet does not ensure its quality. Only in cases where the information sought has its source in a review-oriented process, e.g., from library holdings, can the information on the Internet be trusted.

The Internet is fast becoming a "vanity press," where anything can be published with virtually no critique regarding the quality and accuracy of the content. Indeed, it is not necessarily true that the person to whom a bit of information is attributed is the person who posted it. A bit of information on the Internet lies there until someone comes across it and uses it (or links to it), forming a nucleus for further growth. Further growth may center about critiques of the original piece of information, but, in general, we have no way of establishing the credentials of the critics. It may take an enormous amount of time for an Internet publication to accrue a critique that is equivalent to that received by a equivalent quantum of information in a peer reviewed, paper-oriented journal. It is difficult to decide (unless you already know because of your expertise) when an Internet publication has "passed the test," in contrast to the paper published in a refereed journal. When the printed paper appears, most of the critics associated with that journal have agreed (through the editorial process) that it is probably worthwhile publishing. The appearance of an Internet paper does not carry the same implication since anyone can put anything on the Internet. Anyone who has a computer and a network connection is empowered to publish on the Internet, and often does. Putting a neophyte--a beginning student--in this kind of environment with little or no guidance would seem to abrogate certain responsibilities that teachers have to guide a student's intellectual growth and ability to make critical judgments. This is not an argument against the use of the Internet for teaching; rather it is a plea to use this new tool with care lest our students be harmed intellectually. "As the twig is bent. . ."

The Internet can be likened to an open library where anyone can come in and put a book or a note on a scrap of paper anywhere on the shelves. Further, anyone can go in anytime they wish and make a copy of anything to take away. Without the value added by a librarian, who brings a known (if not necessarily perfect) order to the holdings, the open library is virtually worthless to people who have specific tasks to perform, e.g., finding the NMR spectrum of (or anything characteristic of) a specific compound. Unless we learn how to assure the usefulness and reliability of information on the Internet, one of the era's most valuable resources may never realize its academic potential.

The Internet has become a useful and valuable academic tool where it connects users to an information source of previously established quality, as, for example, in the case of Chemical Abstracts On Line. The processes that establish the quality of the information in the printed version of CA are the same as those for the on-line version; indeed, the printed version is the same as the on-line version, but electronic access provides a variety of potential advantages that include on demand access as well as multiple accesses. All of this, of course, comes at a cost which some have not figured out how to bear. The point of the CA analogy is that the quality of the on-line material is assured because there is no difference between the information in the electronic and the printed version.

How can telecommunications technologies be used to enhance, for example, this Journal. We clearly can't afford to "give away" the contents of the Journal on the Internet although this is technologically feasible. An exact representation of each page of the Journal could be made available in electronic form to be delivered to a local laser printer--but to what end? We could attempt to sell electronic subscriptions, but our estimate is that these would be more expensive than the equivalent print version of the Journal. Moreover, many of our current readers could not access, or possibly would not be interested in, an exact electronic representation. So we have chosen to augment the print Journal with an electronic addition that will permit us to provide an expanded service to those who have access to the Internet. For example, we can provide supplementary tables of data, student handouts, full-size templates for models, color versions of illustrations that our print budget dictates be printed in black and white, and eventually, video clips of demonstrations and experiments.

Our electronic augmentation begins with this issue--at our new Web site at http://www.utexas.edu/cons/jchemed/. The Computer Series article by Pospisil, Zalis, and Fanelli incorporates several fractal diagrams that are available in color on our Web site. We expect future issues of this print Journal to have similar electronic components. Look for them if you have access to the Internet. In addition, we begin publication of the abstracts of the papers that appear in the Journal. Abstracts starting with the July 1995 issue are currently available on-line along with the full text of a few articles. We intend to publish the abstracts for a given issue on the date the Journal is released to be printed, providing a preview of the Journal each month and a way of introducing potential subscribers to our wide range of interesting material for teachers.

JJL