ARC Lighting through the World Wide Web
The steps by which a person performs the process of inquiry using the digitally-networked tools for academic exploration.
Background
In the pre-Internet days, a student would normally begin the process of research by taking a pencil and paper to the library, finding a seat somewhere in the confines of the room, and begin searching for a suitable reference that provided information on the topic. Reference materials were limited to the hard-copy materials located in the library. Even the best resources were limited by the sheer volume of paper required to print the publications.
Over the past 100 years alone, thanks largely to the improved mass production techniques of book publishers, the amount of information blossomed, as evidenced by the growing numbers of shelves in most libraries. Most encyclopedias, for example, grew over the years from a few volumes to the massive shelves of library stacks that most of us remember from our high school and college years.
So massive had our collections grown that, for the common man, the information within the physical collection literally became increasingly difficult to locate. Librarians with expertise in finding information, coupled with sophisticated card cataloging systems, kept track of most of the growing volumes of information, yet their impact was by and large limited to the patrons who sought out their services.
Advent of the Internet
The paradigm shift really began with the advent of the personal computer, which was introduced into America’s households faster than any other form of electronic communication, particularly telephones, radios, and televsions.
The popularity of digital communication literally exploded with the introduction of the World Wide Web through graphic web browsers. Years of development culminated in its commercialization in the early 1990s. And, things were never the same.
Government organizations and higher educational institutions led the way in using this new form of communication, but the rest of the world was right behind them. The publicly-available World Wide Web grew by phenomenal numbers approaching nearly 1.5 billion users by 2008, according to the usage and population statistics published by InternetWorld.com.
Information traditionally found in library reference materials, such as encyclopedias, almanacs, atlases, and the like, quickly migrated to the digital realm of the World Wide Web. Businesses sought out every angle to take advantage of this new forum. Nielson Online reported that, during a one-week period in late August 2008, nearly 40 billion advertisements made their way to Americans, mainly through e-mails, search engines, and web portals.
Taming the Chaos of the WWW: ARC Lighting Your Way
It has been in the midst of the current chaos of the commercialized Internet that the concept of arc lighting has developed. It defines the steps by which a person performs the process of inquiry using the digitally-networked tools for academic exploration.
Becoming fluent in the process of arc lighting means that the individual has become adept at: (1) initiating academic studies with the proper tools, (2) discovering useful data that relates to the topic, (3) synthesizing the data into new information, and (4) communicating the new information in the best format based on the audience. This will likely include presenting a variety of formats, such as a written report and a presentation to an audience.
ARC Light, an application developed by Fowler’s Internet Library, LLC, was designed from the ground up for the academic environment. ARC Light provides all of the resources necessary for the individual to take notes, collect and analyze data, synthesize new ideas from what has been discovered, and finally, communicate these ideas through professional presentations created from applications found in ARC Light.
The power of ARC Light is found in its voluminous collection of Internet-based resources, which are accessed either through browsing or searching. It is an all-in-one application that enables the individual to focus on learning, which is its raison d’etre.