History of Mathematics Sources on the World Wide Web
THE FUTURE (1)
The Future
What Will the Web Contain?
The vast array of resources discussed in this talk is only a fragment of all the sites that relate to history of mathematics on the Web. Almost all of them have come into existence in the last three years. New sites are being created daily; during the course of this conference it is likely that several more have been written. Until now the growth has been uncontrolled and the terrain is covered haphazardly. As educational and commercial enterprises devote more of their resources to Web development, a more even and uniformly high-quality subset of the Web should emerge as a tool of tremendous power for educators of all sorts. The Encyclopedia Britannica Web directory is a major development in this direction.As communication speed increases, interactive tools will be brought to bear. In mathematics, programs like Geometer's Sketchpad are already available as add-ons to Web browsers, and my animations of ancient mathematical models of the motions of the planets are only one example of historical uses of this technology, distributed through the Internet. The activities of the two other speakers in this Working Group, Profs. Bussi and Isoda, may also be disseminated more broadly through the Internet. As technology improves, I believe they will be able to accomplish exciting extensions to their work through the use of techniques such as animations and "virtual instruments". Indeed, in general, students will demand increased and richer interactivity in all of their learning experiences, as more of their experiences are shaped by richer and richer virtual "voyages". This will be a difficult challenge for educators, but a vital one for us to meet.
I believe that specialized software, rather than conventional packages, are the wave of the future. The Famous Curves Index, for instance, requires a certain kind of interaction that is more easily programmed than found in pre-packaged material. Particularly in our field, interactivity will be so diverse that every author will define its practice individually, based on context.