Technical
questions:
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introduction
This page will
provide a FAQ (a list of frequently asked questions, along
with answers) on any topic related to the course.
Ideally, you should
post questions to the online discussion area you use (an online
forum, conference or message board).
Other participants can then post responses.
Your
facilitator can then cull answers from the responses and post
questions and answers on the facilitators' conference (login
and password required). These can then be added to the FAQ.
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What
is a FAQ?
It's
a list of frequently asked questions on a particular topic,
along with answers. The idea is that a FAQ can save people
having to answer the same questions over and over again -
the would be questioner can look in the FAQ and see whether
there's already an answer to be found, before asking a question.
Is it 'a FAQ' or 'an FAQ'? Well, that depends on whether you
say 'fack' or 'eff-ay-queue'. Both are valid.
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Requirements
questions:
Must
I support a learner of some kind in order to complete my assessments?
Yes,
you need to support at least one learner online in order to
gather evidence for assessment 2 (learning outcomes 2 &
3), though for the purposes of the unit the learner may be
a colleague or another member of your group for the purpose
of filling a gap in evidence here or there. Obviously, genuine
learners are preferred (and required for the majority of the
evidence you need), and ESF-eligible learners would be ideal.
It is much easier to gather suitable evidence if you support
(or have already supported) many learners online, rather than
only one. Evidence gathered while supporting learners prior
to starting this unit is perfectly valid, if it meets the
performance criteria and evidence requirements for outcomes
2 & 3.
Please note that you must support at least one
ESF-eligible learner through successful completion of a recognised
unit or module by June 2001.
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Must
my learner(s) be ESF-eligible?
Not
for the purposes of the unit, but to qualify for fee-payment,
you must support at least one ESF-eligible learner
through successful completion of a recognised unit or module
by June 2001.
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What
are the criteria for an ESF-eligible learner?
In
simple terms, an ESF-eligible learner is qualified to a level
below SVQ level II and is either:
- working for an SME and faced with the threat of redundancy
or
- unemployed for less than 6 months
For
further details, or clarification of borderline cases, please
consult your local LEC
representative.
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Who
is responsible for finding me ESF-eligible learners?
Your
own organisation. Please make sure that those responsible
for recruiting learners and monitoring admissions know what
sort of learners you need, by when, and are able to contact
you quickly. This is often important because of the 6 month
cut-off in the case of unemployed learners.
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How
does my organisation benefit from my supporting ESF-eligible
learners?
It
benefits by achieving goals such as helping learners who will
benefit greatly from:
1. completing a relevant unit (i.e. one that enhances their
employment prospects)
2. gaining greater facility with online tools (such as email,
online conferences, search engines, chat, etc.)
Additionally, it entitles your organisation to a fee waiver
for your own completion of this unit. If you don't manage
to support a suitable learner through successful completion
of a recognised unit by June 2001, your organisation may have
to pay for your participation.
It also benefits from your getting more experience supporting
learners online, and from getting more learners supported
online, if these learners are able to work more independently,
and with greater flexibility and more likelihood of successful
completion.
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What
happens if I cannot support an ESF-eligible learner through
successful completion of a recognised unit or module by June
2001?
Your
organisation may have to meet the costs of your participation.
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What
do I have to do to get my certificate?
1.
register as a tutor with SLN
2. enrol for unit with training provider
3. participate on course with facilitator and other members
of your group
4. keep monthly timesheets
5. complete assessments that meet required pc's and evidence
requirements (get confirmation that you're working along the
right lines by submitting early outlines and drafts to a course
conference)
6. submit final drafts of assessments to your facilitator
(get confirmation of provisional acceptance from your facilitator)
7. submit timesheets to LEC representative (please keep copies)
8. await confirmation that internal/external verifiers have
approved your assessments
9. await delivery of certificate
Please remember that to get your certificate at no cost to
yourself or your organisation, you must support an ESF-eligible
learner through successful completion of a recognised unit
or module by June 2001.
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How
do I register with SLN?
Go
to the SLN site and fill in the
online form for tutors. You should, on submitting the
form, get an option to print it. Do. You should then sign
and date the form and send it to your local LEC representative.
Please keep a copy for your records.
Note that to complete the form you must know your facilitator's
email address (actually, the email address used when your
facilitator registered with SLN, so it's best to check with
your facilitator directly).
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Should
my learners register with SLN?
Only
if they are ESF-eligible learners, who must register
if your organisation is to qualify for a fee waiver. Their
printed out, signed and dated form must be sent to your local
LEC representative. Please keep a copy for your records.
To register, ESF-eligible learners must go to the SLN site
and fill in the
online form for learners. Even though it says on the introductory
page that the form is for tutor registrations, clicking on
the 'Next' button should take learners through an appropriate
series of questions to complete their registration.
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Should
my learners keep timesheets too?
This
is advisable, though not required, for all learners. It is
required for ESF-eligible learners, whose signed monthly timesheets
must be sent to your local
LEC representative by June 2001. You should get your learner(s)
to send you copies, too, and it would be helpful if you could
send copies to your facilitator, too.
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Who
should sign my timesheets?
Your
line-manager (or equivalent). If there is no person above
you in your organisation, then a colleague (preferably at
the same level) will do. If in doubt, please consult your
LEC representative.
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Who
should sign my learner's timesheets?
Your
learner's line-manager (or equivalent). If they are unemployed,
ESF-eligible learners should get a supervisor at a learning
centre, or you, or another trainer/tutor to sign their timesheets.
If in doubt, please consult your
LEC representative.
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Who
should I send my timesheets to?
On
completing the programme and getting provisional acceptance
of your assessments from your facilitator, you must send your
signed monthly timesheets to your
LEC representative. This is required for your organisation
to qualify for a fee waiver that covers your participation
in the programme.
It would also be useful if you could keep a copy of your timesheets,
and send another copy to your facilitator.
You also need to keep timesheets for your support of at least
one ESF-eligible learner in order for your organisation to
qualify for a fee waiver for your participation in the programme.
These timesheets, together with your ESF-eligible learner's
timesheets, should also be sent to your
local LEC representative. Please keep copies for your
records.
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Who
should I send my assessments to?
Assessments
should be sent to your facilitator. You should always keep
copies of anything you send, whether electronically or on
paper.
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Course and assessments questions:
What
should I do next?
If you are unsure
how to proceed with the unit, try using this self-assessment
questionnaire (which you can also get as a Word
document), which includes a simple set of questions to
help you identify what you need to do (in terms of deciding
which route to follow, which activities to do, and what evidence
to gather), from starting the unit to completion.
If you don't get
constructive enough ideas from the questionnaire, or still
feel unsure, please get in touch with your facilitator and/or
other course participants, ideally by posting a message to
your group's online conference.
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In
what form should I submit my assessments?
Unless your facilitator says that it's OK for you to submit
final drafts electronically alone, please send printouts of
both assessments to your facilitator.
Think of this paper copy as another backup of your work.
You can send early drafts and final drafts of assessments
to your facilitator by email, within the body of the mail
message, as an email attachment, or both. The advantage of
including your work as plain text within an email message,
is that with most email and conferencing software the original
is automatically distinguished from whatever is new in the
reply. Generally, 'greater than' signs are used:
> this is text written by the author of the previous message
this is text written by the author of the reply - i.e. *this*
message
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How
do I show that I have taken part in an online discussion?
If you put messages on an online conference (or 'forum' -
they're the same thing), respond to conference posts, or take
part in a discussion using a mailing list for your group,
you can print out samples and include these with your other
work. Alternatively, your facilitator can print out a page
that shows a list of all your posts, if the online learning
system you are using has such a facility.
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What
form should the report for assessment 1 take?
The content of the report should reflect the performance criteria
and evidence requirements. The structure should make it fairly
clear where what is dealt with. Please use page numbering
and headings/subheadings, and include a contents page, as
well as a set of references to sites/works quoted from or
referred to in the report.
It also helps if you put your name, version number (e.g. LO1v2),
and date on your report (as a header or footer on every page,
ideally).
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Who
is the audience for the report? Who should I imagine I am
writing for?
Whoever works best for you as an imaginary audience (i.e.
whoever you find it easiest to write for). You could try writing
for your facilitator, colleagues, your reasonably Internet-aware
neighbour, or a teaching journal or related website. It's
often best to write for (someone like) yourself or someone
who knows less about the subject than you do.
As a general rule, don't try to impress. Instead, try to inform,
simply and clearly. Many people feel they have to write something
amazingly original. This is folly. Write what you find to
be just plain obvious and common sense. This will very likely
be more than enough!
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We
are already offering online support for a course. Can I write
about that?
Yes.
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We
do not yet offer online support. Can I write about how we
might use online support with any courses we offer?
Yes.
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We
do not yet offer online support to learners within our organisation.
Can I still complete the assessments?
Yes, as long as you can still generate sufficient evidence.
You could get some of your regular F2F learners to participate,
and support them via email and/or an online conference. Obviously,
you have to choose learners who have frequent access to the
Internet, either at work or at home, if not within your organisation.
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I
have a learner, but am finding it difficult to accumulate
appropriate email and online forum evidence for assessment
2. What should I do?
Use colleagues/friends/family/others in the group as make-believe
learners to create evidence of the sort you would get using
genuine learners. Alternatively, say what you would say/do/write
if circumstances were different.
Please note, however that you cannot generate most or all
of your evidence this way. You must have a good deal of evidence
acquired while working with a genuine learner, or learners.
If in doubt, please consult your facilitator.
If you can, try to support a lot of learners, rather than
only one or two. You should find it easier to accumulate evidence
if you do, for the simple reason that there should be more
traffic, and therefore more material to choose from.
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File and email management questions:
How
should I organise learners' emails?
It
helps to filter incoming mail into appropriate folders. Exactly
how (and if!) you can do this, and also the terminology involved,
varies according to the email program (such as Outlook, Eudora,
Pegasus, etc.) or web-based email service (such as Hotmail)
you use.
Generally, you set up a 'rule' that specifies what happens
to incoming mail that meets a specific criterion. For example,
you might create a rule that checks whether a particular learner's
email address is in the From field of a message, and if it
is, moves that message to the folder you have set up for mail
from that learner and/or mail from that learner's group.
You should also make regular backups of all mail you receive
from learners, and keep the backup in a different room (or
even a different building) from the computer with the original
files.
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How
should I submit learners' emails as evidence for assessment
2?
Final drafts should be sent as printouts. You can send samples,
or early drafts to your facilitator as plain text files, within
a Word document sent as an email attachment or conference
post, or within the body of an email or conference post. Alternatively,
you can cc or bcc to your tutor any appropriate emails you
send to learners, and forward any suitable emails that learners
send to you. Even so, your facilitator will probably require
a paper copy of your final portfolio and commentary.
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How
should I organise files that learners send me?
One way is to use filenames that identify the learner and
work (e.g. JanetSmith_Lo1final.doc) and put all of the files
from one group in a folder that identifies that group, e.g.:
C:\online groups\netintro2_00\JanetSmith_Lo1final.doc
Another way is to use filenames that identify the work (e.g.
Lo1final.doc), and put them in folders for each individual
learner:
C:\online groups\netintro2_00\JanetSmith\Lo1final.doc
A variation is to use folders as in-trays and out-trays:
C:\online groups\netintro2_00\JanetSmith\pending\Lo2and3final.doc
C:\online groups\netintro2_00\JanetSmith\done\Lo1final.doc
The idea of this scheme is that when you receive a file from
a learner, you put it in the learner's 'pending' folder, and
once you've given feedback on the work, you move the file
to the 'done' folder. It's a bit like having in and out trays.
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How
should I show evidence of my organising learners' emails and
files?
It's easiest and best if you use a screenshot of a) your learners'
mail folder(s) and b) your learners' folders on your local
or network drive.
Something like this, perhaps:
If you use mail filtering rules to sort incoming mail into
mail folders for the group or for individual learners, you
could create a screenshot of that, too:
The way things look will differ according to the program(s)
that you use, but here's how to create screenshots on a Windows
system:
1. press Alt+PrintScrn to copy a screenshot of the active
window to the computer's memory (you don't see anything happen!)
2. open Word and right click in a new document window and
select Paste in the shortcut menu that pops up
You can then send the Word document as an email attachment
or print it out if you want to send it on paper.
Tip: Make the active window as small as possible before taking
the screenshot. Ths will cut down on the resulting file's
size.
The same goes for when you create a screenshot on a Mac:
1. press applekey+shift+4 while CapsLock is on
2. click on the window you want a screenshot of
The resulting file will be saved as 'image1.jpg' on your hard
drive. You can send this as an email attachment or open it
and print it out and send the printout with the rest of your
portfolio to your facilitator.
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Course and assessments questions:
How
do I take a screenshot?
You can get special programs for taking screenshots (pictures
of what is displayed on your screen, saved as image files
that you can send to someone else or open and print out),
but you don't need to if you are a Windows or Mac user.
As stated above, on a Windows
machine, you can take a screenshot of the active window by
pressing Alt+PrintScreen. Nothing appears to happen when you
do this, but the screenshot has been silently taken and copied
to the Clipboard, the memory of the computer. You can open
Word and in a new document right-click and select Paste (or
just hit Ctrl+V, without even clicking) to paste the image
into the document.
On a Mac, put CapsLock on and then press Option+Shift+4. The
mouse pointer turns into a circle with which you select the
window you want a screenshot of. Just click to select, and
you'll hear the shutter release to let you know the screenshot
has been taken. If you look in the root folder of your main
HD, you should find a new image there. Just double-click on
it to open it.
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How
do I send a screenshot to my facilitator?
You can send your screenshot on paper, and/or, if it's not
too big (over 300KB is already pretty big), you can send the
image file (or the Word document it's embedded within) as
an email attachment. Just click on the button or link that
says 'Attachment' or looks lke a paperclip, and then browse
for the file you want to send.
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Should
I submit everything on paper?
Yes please, unless your facilitator says otherwise.
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What
form should the commentary take for assessment 2?
You can submit drafts as email or conference/forum messages,
or send them as Word documents or text files. Whatever your
facilitator prefers. Final drafts should be sent in on paper,
unless your facilitator requests otherwise.
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I
haven't been able to acquire evidence for this pc yet. What
should I do?
First, try to decide how likely it is that you will get the
evidence. If it's difficult to say, perhaps because it depends
on what others do, create a contingency plan with your facilitator.
This may be as simple as explaining why this pc (performance
criterion) could not be met and writing what you would have
done to meet this pc had things been otherwise.
An alternative solution might be to use colleagues or fellow
course participants as pretend learners in order to generate
emails or conference posts that meet a particular pc.
Consult your facilitator and see what they recommend.
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Can
I use colleagues or other course participants as pretend learners
in order to acquire evidence?
Yes, but most of your evidence must still be genuine.
If you are using the same tools (email and conferencing facilities)
and the same techniques (asking questions, posing problems,
recommending sites, checking on progress, etc.) using colleagues
is a very acceptable way of filling gaps in your evidence.
If your colleagues are taking a genuine course (e.g. as part
of a staff development programme), and you provide them with
online support (even if you are not not their principal, or
usual, tutor), then they count as genuine learners, and you
may use evidence generated with them to meet as many of the
requirements as you can.
Naturally, evidence acquired while working with genuine learners
(colleagues or otherwise) is preferred to evidence generated
in an artificial way.
If you have already supported learners online, you may already
have copies of emails, handouts, etc. that would count as
evidence. If so, you can use them. The evidence need not be
from learners you are supporting at the moment.
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How
do I create a mailing list, so that I can mail all my learners
with a single message?
Exactly how you do this depends on the particular email client
(such as Outlook, Pegasus, Eudora, etc.) or web-based email
service (such as Hotmail) that you use.
Look in the help file of your particular program or service
for 'lists', 'groups', 'distribution lists', 'mailing lists',
'group' or 'group alias'.
Generally, you create a list by typing or copying and pasting
email addresses into a dialogue box, and giving the list a
name (a nickname, an alias). You can then send a single message
to the list/group and it will go to all participants. With
Outlook you add names and addresses to you Address Book, and
then create a group and add members to it from the Address
Book.
It's a good idea when creating lists/groups to put your own
address at the very end. That way if you get a message that
you send it shows that the mesage has been successfully sent,
and has probably been received by all valid email addresses
in the list.
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How
do I filter incoming mail into folders?
Details vary (check your own program's help files), but in
general you do this:
First, you create a folder you want to filter (or 'sort')
mail into. Let's say we want to filter all mail coming from
learners in group X23 into a single folder. So first we create
a folder called 'group X23' (if your system doesn't allow
spaces you could call it 'group_x23' or just 'X23').
Next, you collect the email addresses you want to create rules
for. Each email address gets its own rule. The rule checks
every email that arrives to see if it matches the address
set up in the rule, and if one of them is, the message gets
moved to the folder stated in the rule.
Now you're ready to create the rule. Click on whatever you
need to click on in your program to open the rule dialogue
box and create a new rule by selecting From as the search
field in the email's header, inserting the email address that's
first in your list as the search criterion (the 'trigger'
if you like) and select 'Move to' as the action to be performed
if the trigger is found. Then choose the folder you set up
for the group as the destination for all moved emails.
Once everything has been set up for your first rule, for the
first email address, do the same thing for the next unti you
reach the end of your list of learners' email addresses.
Take care to include all the addresses your learners might
use. In the real world, this is pretty much impossible (as
learners might send from a new address), so mail filtering
doesn't necesarily mean that you can safely get all relevant
mails from incoming mail and ignore the rest!
Still, despite the fact that you cannot totally rely on it,
mail filtering is a very useful aid when you have a lot of
emails to deal with.
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My
organisation doesn't have an online learning system. What
can I do?
You can use a free web-based service such as Delphi.
Try searching Yahoo using
'virtual communities' as your keywords.
Learners can get free email accounts from services like Delphi,
Hotmail, etc. too.
Web-based services do have their limitations, however. One
of the most noticeable with Hotmail is its 2MB limit, but
there are free web-based storage systems for you to move attachments
to, so that you can free up some space. Take a look at i-drive,
for example:
http://www.idrive.com/
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My
organisation doesn't issue learners with email accounts. What
can I do?
Get your learners to register with a free web-based email
service, such as Hotmail:
http://www.hotmail.com/
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My
organisation/my learner's organisation doesn't allow learners
to use email, chat or online forums on its computers. What
can I do?
Try to get them to change their policy, and in the meantime
see if your learners can get access elsewhere.
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My
organisation's online learning system uses features (e.g.
Java, cookies, javascript) that are shut out by the firewall
of my learner's organisation. What can I do?
First, try to persuade the learner's organisation to change
its policy. Also, see if your learner can get enough access
elsewhere, without restrictions.
Next, if no solution is found, see if your learner can access
web-based email and conferencing/forum services such as deja.com
or delphi.com.
Alternatively, and perhaps preferably, given that your learner
at the very least has email, you can get *all* conference
posts either cc-ed or forwarded to the learner.
Also, find out if your conference/forum has an email address.
If it has, then the learner can use this address to post directly
to the conference.
Tip: Watch out for learners who use automated email replies.
Tell them they must turn them off, otherwise endless loops
occur if all conference posts are forwarded or cc-ed to the
learner. When the learner posts a message, the message is
sent to the learner once it arrives on the conference (as
every new message is), the automated reply will then go to
the conference, and will then be copied to the learner, generating
another automated reply, and so on. Most systems have a way
of blocking this going on forever, but it could cause problems
on your system, so consult your sysadmin (the person who looks
after your system). If they say it would crash the system
and they have no solution, you are faced with a difficult
choice. You may even find that your sysadmin forbids automated
forwarding of posts to any address in order to preclude loops
causing system crashes. If that is the case, all messages
will have to be cc-ed or forwarded to the learner(s) concerned
manually(!!). You can make this task easier by creating
a simple mailing list in a text editor such as Notepad. The
form it takes will depend on the system, but it will probably
be either line-break separated:
learner1@isp.com
learner2@isp.com
learner3@isp.com
learner4@isp.com
or comma separated (the technical term is 'comma delimited'):
learner1@isp.com, learner2@isp.com, learner3@isp.com,
learner4@isp.com
Many systems cope with either a space or no space after each
comma.
You can save your list, once you've set it up properly, as
a text file. Every time you want to forward new messages to
a group of learners you can open the text file and copy the
list from it and paste the list into the 'To' field of each
of the forwarded messages (click in the field and press Ctrl+V,
or right-click in the field and select Paste).
This can make a monotonous task easier, but it would be better
still if you could use a system that allowed mass forwarding
of selected messages. If your system doesn't allow this, you
might like to try this solution if your own email program
does allow bulk forwarding:
1. Get participants that do have access to the conference
to cc every post to you, and cc all your own posts
to yourself, too.
2. Move all these messages, as they arrive as new mail in
your email program, to a folder that you use as a holding
space for forwarding operations.
3. Forward the entire contents of the folder to your group
of learners.
4. Empty the folder
You might be able to find a way to automatically identify
all such messages, as they arrive, that are intended for forwarding,
but solutions such as filtering messages according to identifiers
in either the email address used, or a code in the subject
line, are unlikely to be foolproof. If they work for you and
your learners, consistently, you can use 'rules' to automatically
forward the identifed mails to learners, and move the incoming
mails identified to a folder that gives you a record of what
has been sent.
If you can't find a way to consistently identify all and only
the messages from the conference that need to be forwarded,
you may find that it's often better to just quickly open new
email messages and then move all the ones that you want to
forward to a group of learners to a single folder that you
use for that purpose. Check that the folder is empty before
putting any new mail mesages into it. After moving messages
(or copying them if you want to keep them) to your special
forwarding folder you can select all of the files and forward
them to your group of learners in a single operation with
an email program such as Pegasus.
Ideally, you could get all participants to cc posts directly
to all learners who do not have access to the conference,
but this might be a bit of a bind, or even an obstacle, for
some learners, and you might prefer to try to get them to
just remember to cc posts to you, at least.
Tip: Check with your sysadmin how many email addresses can
go in the cc field. It may be that there is a maximum number
of characters that the field can cope with. It's useful to
have a rough idea of how many email addresses you can safely
include. As a check, you can always put your own email address
at the end of any list. That way, if you get the message then
you know it has been sent to all other valid addresses, too.
See if your system can use aliases. If it can, you can put
your mini mailing list on the system (your sysadmin will explain
how) and create a short name for the group, an 'alias', that
the system will recognise when it is in the 'To' or 'cc' fields
of any post created on the system.
Aliases should be short and memorable. If they are, it will
be easier for course participants to use them.
To use an alias, the poster of the message types or pastes
it into either the 'To' or 'cc' field, when composing the
message.
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I
am getting more emails from my learners than I can deal with.
What should I do?
Get them to use an online conference (aka 'online forum'/
'BBS') and support each other, instead of sending all their
questions to you. Make it clear from the start that you want
them to support each other by trying to answer each other's
questions before you do.
If you do not have access to a conference, get your learners
to set up a mailing list (group distribution list, whatever
you want to call it) with the email addresses of all participants
(you included). They can then ask and answer each other's
questions on the list.
You can set up a forum for free with delphi.com,
if your organisation does not have its own online learning
platform.
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I
am getting more online conference posts from my learners than
I can deal with. What should I do?
Encourage learners to answer each other's (as
well as your) questions on an online conference, and thus
spread the load. You should not attempt to answer everything
yourself! Getting learners to respond is better for you as
well as being much better for them.
Some people say 'but won't this expose learners to incorrect
ansers?' Well, it's clear that this is not a disadvantage
at all, in fact it is highly desirable in that it gives you
(or other learners) a chance to correct erroneous ideas.
Answering questions also gets learners to think, and gives
them useful practice that will consolidate their learning.
Watch the frequency of your own responses, and try to remind
yourself (as well as learners) that you shouldn't be the only
person supplying answers.
Get learners involved online by getting them to answer questions/
suggest solutions to problems, etc. that you put up
on the conference/forum or send to the list.
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My
learners are fairly/totally inactive online. What should I
do?
First, put a new post on your conference, asking them to contact
you. If your system allows you to check who has read this
post, you can keep checking to see who has and who hasn't
read it. It's a good idea to send a message to the learners
by email, too.
This could be a standard message informing them to take a
look at the conference and check new posts. You can then get
a fair idea of whether or not they are reading their mail
(and particpating) from the response time (and from whether
there's a response at all!).
If there is no response, you can either send out a standard
letter informing them that if you do not see evidence of active
participation within x days they will be assumed to have withdrawn
from the course, or something friendlier and more encouraging.
Alternatively, you could start phoning. Whether phoning or
sending out a mailshot is easier depends on how automated
your mailshots are and who has to fill the envelopes, etc.
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After submitting evidence:
I
have completed my assessments, and got feedback and confirmation
of provisional acceptance from my facilitator. What should
I do next?
Send your completed timesheets to your LEC representative.
It would also help if you could complete this online
questionnaire.
[^]
Can
I get support after the programme, too?
Your training provider is under no obligation to provide continuing
support, but may let you continue to use the conferencing
system for as long as it is not a significant drain on resources.
If you do still have access to your conference, then you can
continue to use it to support each other.
[^]
Technical questions:
What
is IRC?
Internet
Relay Chat - a way of communicating in real time, using text.
To use IRC you need an Internet connection and an IRC client.
The most famous IRC client for Windows is mIRC. Once the client
is installed, and your connection is OK, connect to an IRC
server, choose a channel, and start chatting!
Here's
what it looks like when you're talking to yourself (!):
[^]
Where
do I get an IRC client from?
You
could try:
http://www.shareware.com/
http://tucows.cableinet.com/
mIRC
is the most popular client, and it has its own site:
http://www.mirc.co.uk/
Which
IRC client should I get?
If
you need an IRC client, and use Windows, get mIRC:
http://www.mirc.co.uk/mirc.html
If
you use a Mac, get Ircle:
http://www.ircle.com/
If
you use another OS, or have any questions, please let your
facilitator know.
[^]
Where
can I read more about IRC?
You
might like to take a look at the PCWebopedia page:
http://webopedia.internet.com/TERM/I/IRC.html
and
this one:
http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/new2irc.html
and
this one too, if you haven't already done so (it's on the
links page):
http://www.newbie-u.com/irc/
[^]
What
other chat systems are there?
There
are many other ways of exchanging information using text in
real time. You might like to look up the following on pcwebopedia:
ICQ
NetMeeting
chat
chat
room
MUD
There
are also ways of chatting in real time without relying on
text. Internet
telephony and videoconferencing have been around for some
time, though not everyone has a webcam, microphone and speakers
or headphones, etc.:
CoolTalk
videoconferencing
[^]
How
do I avoid replying to the whole list when I receive an email
sent to the list and I want to reply to the sender alone?
It's
all too easy to inadvertently reply to the whole list instead
of just the sender, when we receive a mail sent to a mailing
list (or 'group distribution list' or whatever you want to
call a single message sent to multiple recipients).
To
avoid this, be careful to make sure that only the sender is
in the To: field and there's nobody in the CC: field. You
may get something like this when you choose to reply:
The
important bit, here, is the Selected Addresses radio button
being on, rather than the All recipients button. The selected
address is the 'From' field (i.e. the sender).
You
may find something similar in your own email client.
[^]
How
do I submit a question that can be dealt with in this FAQ?
Please
send suggestions directly to:
chris@posfl.co.uk
You
are very welcome to suggest answers, too. In fact, it would
really help if you could all contribute questions with
answers, perhaps based on experience with your own learners.
Oh,
and though some of the questions already here might be quite
technical, any questions that come up are valid!
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