[comp.edu] "Taking Advantage of the Internet"

brendan@cs.widener.edu (Brendan Kehoe) (03/13/91)

 All but one of our faculty has a marked apathy towards being
associated with Unix at all (we were an all-VMS shop 2 years ago). As
a result, I do as many things as I can to sell my systems with the
students, since they aren't even told of their existance in nearly any
class. [I tally my success by how many people I can get to be
comfortable with using Emacs on a regular basis. Hehe.]

 Anyway, I'm starting to write a small booklet about the various
utilities & information available via our Internet link. I want to
mentioning email, talk, school libraries, the archie ftp server,
ftp in general, mailing lists, news, finger, whois, and considering
including IRC. (Anything I missed?)

 I was wondering if anyone's ever written up something like this, for
an undergraduate audience? (aka most of them haven't the slightest
idea what the network is, but would get into it if they were given the
right information)

 I'm not looking to duplicate, I simply need some idea on how to
structure this kind of thing. Trying to present this much information
in a format that's easy to read and at the same time provides a
semi-tutorial hasn't been the easiest thing to devise.

 Any and all help, suggestions, pointers, whatever, are MORE than
welcome.
 Also any suggestions on how people wish *they* had been introduced to
all of this are welcome.

 Thanks.

Brendan

-- 
     Brendan Kehoe - Widener Sun Network Manager - brendan@cs.widener.edu
  Widener University in Chester, PA                A Bloody Sun-Dec War Zone

avalon@coombs.anu.edu.au (avalon) (03/14/91)

brendan@cs.widener.edu (Brendan Kehoe) writes:


> All but one of our faculty has a marked apathy towards being
>associated with Unix at all (we were an all-VMS shop 2 years ago). As
>a result, I do as many things as I can to sell my systems with the
>students, since they aren't even told of their existance in nearly any
>class. [I tally my success by how many people I can get to be
>comfortable with using Emacs on a regular basis. Hehe.]

> Anyway, I'm starting to write a small booklet about the various
>utilities & information available via our Internet link. I want to
>mentioning email, talk, school libraries, the archie ftp server,
>ftp in general, mailing lists, news, finger, whois, and considering
>including IRC. (Anything I missed?)

> I was wondering if anyone's ever written up something like this, for
>an undergraduate audience? (aka most of them haven't the slightest
>idea what the network is, but would get into it if they were given the
>right information)

I think that there would be an interested post-graduate or staff
audience too.  I'm sure there are many staff members in various
institutions arount the world who use unix for day- to day work
all the time and never even come close to using it to the maximum.

I'm sure there would also be an interest in the commercial sector
sooner or later for some sort of confernencing program to run on
top of their networks.

-avalon

cavrak@kira.UUCP (Steve Cavrak) (03/20/91)

From article <1991Mar13.153338.10108@cs.widener.edu>, by brendan@cs.widener.edu (Brendan Kehoe):
> 
>  I was wondering if anyone's ever written up something like this, for
> an undergraduate audience? (aka most of them haven't the slightest
> idea what the network is, but would get into it if they were given the
> right information)
> 

One thing to do is to teach a short course on what a network is -- 
maybe starting with "vn" or "tass" or even "TheNews" (on a Mac).

You can show them what a network is, and then pick up copies (from the
network) of the HitchHikers Guide (using Archie at quiche.cs.mcgill.ca
to find a copy?), or the Nearnet Pocket Guide, or even (Save the Baby
Trees) the Internet Resource Guide.  Take them on a visit to the Electronic
Village (Cleveland Ohio!), etc.

Not much of this requires Unix -- you'll even run into Big Blue Iron on
the network - much of it can be done from PC's and Macs !  

See ya
Steve