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SOCIOLOGY 388 - Corrections
INTERNET COMPONENT
This course will rely heavily on the Internet. The Internet component
is as much a part of the course as coming to class and reading the
text. It both replaces and supplements some conventional teaching
techniques, and all students MUST FULLY PARTICIPATE.
The initial EXPECTATIONS:
1) Access a computer account that provides Internet access (All NIU
students have an NIU account/Z-number, but many of you have an
account outside of NIU such as AOL).
2) Use E-mail
3) Access the Web (ie, "net-surf")
NOTE: The sociology department as a computer lab in DuSable 202B
for student use.
II. INTERNET PROJECTS
For the Internet part of the course, we will use the following:
ELECTRONIC MAILING LIST
An electronic mailing list is simply a means by which a group of
people can communicate with each other by E-mail. Mailing lists allow
people to send a post to one address, called the "mailing list
address," and the magic of the software then sends that post out to
every member of the list. To reply to the list, you can either use the
"Reply" function of your mailing software, or manualy type in the
address. To subscribe to the mailing list for this class, send this
message:
SUBSCRIBE SOCI388 firstname lastname
(note: soci388" is all one word, and "firstname" is YOUR first
name, not the word "firstname." For example, I would send this:
SUB SOCI388 Jim Thomas
Send it to THIS ADDRESS: listproc@venus.soci.niu.edu
If your request to subscribe is successful, you will receive a return
post from the software within a few minuutes. The note might ask you
to change your password. You can ignore this, because we will not
be using this.
The mailing list will be used primarily for class announcements.
Most discussion will occur on WebBoard.
Remember that posts to the mailing list will be archived on the class
homepage, where they can be read by anybody in the world, so think
before you post.
CLASS HOMEPAGE
The class homepage is the point from where you can access most material:
http://venus.soci.niu.edu/~jthomas/class/388/388.html
You are strongly encouraged to immediately begin exploring the
front door to see what's there.
WEBBOARD
Go to:
http://www.clas.niu.edu:88/~jthomas
WebBoard lets us do what's called threaded conferencing. This is
different than a mailing list. A mailing list sends out posts to
everybody. Threaded software is a bit like a homepage that allows
people to make a post, but the post remains. Other people in the class
(but only people in the class) can read the posts.
WebBoard also allows real-time (or "synchronous") chat (typed, not
voice). The entire class can "chat" at once if it wishes.
To access WebBoard, you must again use an id and a password. We do
this for security reasons. WebBoard allows us to post a message,
leave it, and others can respond to it whenver they wish. It also
allows users to start a new topic (or "thread") in a particular
conference (a conference is the main issue that's being addressed).
For example, the first "conference" "Welcome/Introductions." Here is
where people can post something about themself, links to their own
homepage, or even a picture (eg, gif or jpg) if they have it.
The best way to understand WebBoard is to log on immediately and start
practicing.
This will be explained in class.
WebBoard is a significant part of your grade.
Jim Thomas / Sociology / Northern Illinois University
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Page maintained by: Jim Thomas - jthomas@sun.soci.niu.edu