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These web pages were set up with a number of different purposes.
The principal purpose is to assist in teaching and learning in
the courses that I teach at Birmingham. Another is to provide
a forum for my students to learn how to set up Web pages. Another
is so that I can learn how to set up Web pages.
This is a brief introduction to the site. If you would like
a guided tour, now rather outdated, it's here.
You'll find a variety of different layouts. This one is my
attempt at what's known as third generation style. This is current
as of February 99. There's plenty of material in a much cruder
style, but there's no point in upgrading all of it: life is too
short, too interesting, and there's too much else to do.
This is a live site: I use it for teaching on a daily basis.
Generally it's more important to get the material up on the Web
quickly and out to the students than to adhere to the rules of
design consistency and so on. Look at it as a teaching device,
and an example of the use of the Web as a routine tool for small-scale
communication. Essentially you are overhearing a dialogue between
me and my students. You are very welcome to do so. I will tidy
it up from time to time...
A good way into the site is to go via my
CV: this has links to most of the main items. Here, however,
is a brief outline of what's there:
My main academic interests are twofold: I teach a three year
course called Bibliography and Paleography (here is a general
description of the course), and I'm interested in literary
theory: theory of reading, writing, and text-dissemination (this
goes with the Bibliography); also theory of Mind as it relates
to the study of literature (Freud, Jung, Lacan). I teach a first
year tutorial on Kurt Vonnegut, so I've included some material
around that topic. The site contains material for and/or by students:
coursework, Web pages they have designed, DTP work, their notes
from lectures, how-to-do-it manuals (eg a paper on how to write
an essay), and so on. And, finally, some experiments: to see
what the medium can do.
Here are some links to sections of the site on those topics.
Other bits will be added from time to time. In the words
of the great Web joke (from Robin Williams' excellent The Non-Designer's
Web Book):
What's that?
It's called the World Wide Web.
What's it for?
I don't know. It's not finished yet.
A word about the B&P icon,
which you 'll find in various places. "B&P" stands
for "Bibliography and Paleography", the name of the
course I teach. The icon was created by Gunnlaugur
Briem, the Icelandic calligrapher. He did it in black ink,
one take only, using a carrot, which he had shaped into
nib form. He is a genius.
For those of you not used to browsing: if you want to get
back to the page you just came from, click on the 'Back' button
in the icon bar at the top of your browser. To get back to anywhere
else you've been to, using the pull-down "Go" menu
(if you're using Netscape). It's extremely bad Web design practice
to ask browsers to use the back button, by the way. One day,
I mean to do something about that...
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