TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS Internet Access | E-mail | Modem | CPU | RAM | Windows | Netscape | Internet Explorer | Mac's REGULAR ACCESS TO THE INTERNET AND WORLD WIDE WEB: You should plan to spend 9-10 hours each week on this course. Much of that will be spent on-line, on the class discussion group, the on-line readings and other on-line resources, and class e-mail. Some time will be spent off-line, if you print out the readings to study them off-line. You may use CSULB campus labs, if you are a registered CSULB student. They are open extensive hours seven days a week. You may also work entirely from your own home, if you have regular access to the full Internet, including graphics on the World Wide Web. (Lynx access to the WWW will be inadequate for this course, as you will not have access to the graphics on the Web.) E-MAIL ACCOUNT: You must have your own e-mail account in your own name, either through CSULB (free to registered students) or through a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP). You will be required to check your e-mail a minimum of once a week, as lecture notes and other announcements will be distributed to your e-mail address. It is recommended that you plan to check e-mail more frequently, at least several times a week. MODEM: 28.8K (minimum) or a faster connection through the campus network or a T-1 connection: We will be looking at many graphics images on the WWW, so a modem slower than 28.8 will prove unacceptable. PENTIUM OR 486 CPU: Your computer should be at least a 486, preferably a Pentium. The Netscape software and the file sizes we will be using in the course will not run at an acceptable level with a 386 or older machine. If necessary, you could use a 386 for your e-mail, and use campus labs with Pentiums or 486s for the other work in the course. 8-32 MB RAM: Netscape 3.0 will run with 8 MB RAM, but you will be happier with at least 16 MB RAM. To run Netscape Communicator, you need 32 MB RAM. You are not required to use Communicator, but you will be required to author a Web page and Communicator includes a free web-authoring program (Composer). If necessary, you could author your web page in a campus lab with Composer and do your other work at home on a machine with less than 32 MB RAM. WINDOWS 3.1x OR WINDOWS 95/NT: To run the Netscape software for web-browsing on a PC, you will need a version of Windows, no older than 3.1 NETSCAPE 2.0 OR HIGHER: Netscape 2.0 and higher includes programs for mail and newsgroups, as well as web-browsing. You will need all of those capabilities for the course requirements. As an educational user, you can download a newer version of Netscape for free from the Netscape site: http://www.netscape.com/ INTERNET EXPLORER: If you prefer Internet Explorer as your browser, instead of Netscape, you are free to use IE for the course. Although the instructor has IE, she is not sufficiently conversant to solve technical problems that arise for you during the course. Only one known defect in IE will affect course requirements: our class e-mail page has a "mass e-mail" set up to send a message to everyone in the class. IE cuts off most of the names on the distribution list when you try to use it to send mail. In addition, the web-authoring function in IE appears much more primitive than Netscape Composer. MAC USERS: You need Netscape 2.0 or higher, 8-32 MB RAM, and MacOS 7.0 or higher. As the instructor for this course is not Mac-conversant, she will not be able to provide technical help, but several campus labs have Macs, with knowledgeable attendants who can answer your questions. Course Objectives Course Requirements and Grading Course Syllabus: Reading Assignments Discussion Requirements Writing Assignments Internet Competency Requirements Questions? e-mail: jvancamp@csulb.edu Julie Van Camp Copyright 1997 Julie C. Van Camp Last updated: November 18, 1997