Within a single lecture period an instructor might wish to use any or all of the following: images on overhead transparencies or 35 mm slides, sound and/or movie clips, mathematical or statistical models, 3-dimensional models, animations, databases, or interactive exercises. Assembling such a diverse array of instructional materials, carrying them to class, setting up the hardware to display each, and then juggling between them during a 50 minute lecture would be quite intimidating, even to the most dedicated and technologically savvy instructor. However, we have all visited web sites which seamlessly combine all these materials and more. In response to bandwidth limitations, highly compressed GIF and JPEG images have replaced bitmapped images, and compressed streaming formats have become the preferred method for encoding audio and video. Shockwave, Java applets and databases have brought true interactivity to the web and VRML and other technologies, e.g. Rasmol, permit objects to be viewed and manipulated in 3-D. The web browser, which has the ability to combine text with a wide variety of multi-media materials, in a truly interactive format, has become a very powerful educational tool. This presentation will demonstrate how these same technologies may be used to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom, even without an Internet connection.

Key words: computer, Teaching, World Wide Web