An Integrated Approach to the Home Page in Public Administration Education

Abstract

The technology for creating “Home Pages” on the Internet has evolved to the point that most departments are able to put something up on the Web. It is time to begin serious discussion of what the creation of hypertext Web pages can do for public administration education. This discussion must include but also move beyond the usual “how to” questions toward a broader analysis. Home Page sites, consisting of hypertext pages on the World Wide Web, are an evolving technology that may change the way we think about learning, research and public service. Public Administration programs need to develop policies and processes that maximize the effectiveness of their ventures onto the Web. Critics of present modes of public administration education have challenged us to search for unifying themes and explore the “linkage among management, analysis, and policy” (Ventriss, 1991, 11). Web pages, properly used, provide an alternative which moves us beyond an exclusive reliance on the classroom and lecture-centered education experience to a distributed and learner-centered experience. Web technology lends itself to active and integrative learning. This article explores some of the issues involved in this process and makes suggestions as to the most effective use of technology for public administration (PA) programs.