What's the Story about the McEachern Economics Web Site?

Welcome! Thanks for dropping by the McEachern Economics Web Site, your interactive guide to economics on the Internet. We invite you to take advantage of the many resources we have collected and created to accompany Economics: A Contemporary Introduction.

What is the story behind the McEachern Economics Web Site? Economics has always been among the leaders in using current technology to improve the teaching and learning of economics. For example, Economics was the first book to create a multimedia CD-ROM for the principles of economics course, and continues to offer Economics Alive!, the most sophisticated CD-ROM on the market. So when the power of the Internet became apparent, we sat down to figure out how to harness this exciting yet, oftentimes, unwieldy resource.

Before we discussed nuts-and-bolts, we agreed that any Internet integration should satisfy two basic requirements. First, Internet applications need to be integrated into the textbook. Why make things difficult by including examples or problems central to each chapter’s discussion somewhere else? Thus, Economics now includes over 140 interactive Internet examples and problems, with over 200 Internet links, integrated into text chapters. Of course, these sites may change after you get the book. To keep you up-to-date on any changes, as well as for convenience, we have included all of these examples and problems within Applications by Chapter.

Second, we recognized that individual knowledge of the Internet varies greatly. Some users are whizzes, others "newbies," while others still have never used the Internet. How do we accommodate all of these users? All Internet tools and applications, while integrated into Economics and quite valuable, are optional to the text’s presentation of economics. No one who uses Economics is forced onto the Internet. As well, while one is tempted to dive deeply into the most "economic" sites on the Internet, Internet integration requires as much teaching how to use the Internet as how to use economics resources on the Internet. Thus, Economics offers the initiated and uninitiated alike a structured tour of resources on the Internet. These resources are always presented within an economics context -- remember that the examples and problems are presented within the context of text chapters -- but not all sites are purely focused on economics. As well, we emphasize that users learn through exploration and discovery, perhaps the Internet’s greatest potential benefit.

Back to the nuts-and-bolts...but why waste time reading about them? Take a look for yourself. Explore, discover, and enjoy. And when you’re finished, let us know what you think. We include our email addresses below for specific comments.

The best of luck!

William A. McEachern
University of Connecticut, Storrs

Joe Devine
Senior Designer, South-Western College Publishing

Vicky True
Media Technology Editor, South-Western College Publishing