Precis: An analysis of computer-mediated communication and its impact on educational processes and structures in the context of the developing national information infrastructure and the emerging networked society of the 21st century.
Online Requirements: This seminar is not for students seeking an initial introduction to using the Internet or other digital communications technologies. It presumes your ability to use such technologies. You need to do extensive surfing of the World Wide Web, use email and a course news group, and contribute HTML material to our website. The object is to use these tools to advance our understanding of the cultural and educational questions at issue in the course, not to advance our know-how with Internet technologies.
A fast Internet connection will facilitate your work -- 14.4 is the minimum, 28.8 will be OK. You should establish a Columbia University computer account, to which you are entitled as a matriculated student, as we will be using a News Group that permits access only to registered Columbia users. You can extablish your account online. Once you have a Columbia User ID, you can subscribe to the course News Group (instructions for this appear on the Resources page). Since this course will take place on the Web and will use its resources extensively, a current generation browser is highly advisable -- either Netscape Communicator (version 4.04 is current) or Microsoft Internet Navigator (version 4.0 is current). You may need to use Telnet, adequate versions of which are included in Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, as well (I believe) with Mac OS. You will definitely need an FTP program. I believe an adequate version of FTP is included in Mac OS (you will soon realize that I am a long-time Windows user whose knowledge of the Mac is fuzzy). If you are a Windows user, a good, relatively inexpensive FTP program, WS_FTP Professional, can be downloaded from Ipswitch, Inc.
last modified 11-Feb-98
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