Hello, everyone.  Hope your new millennium got off to a good start.

I want to cover some of the initial basics with you (more to follow):

The program we are using (Blackboard) is far superior in its capabilities to
the TopClass program from last year.  Unless you know this program already,
it will be necessary for you to familiarize yourself with it before
introducing it to your students.

It's pretty easy to learn, and if you click on the "help" button and then
the link for the instructor's manual, you should learn it rather quickly.

Let me cover some initial points with you.  First, I'll back up to square
one.

1.  The Blackboard address is bb.wpunj.edu.
2.  You must send your name and affiliation to Robert Harris
([log in to unmask]) in order to gain access to Blackboard.  He will give you
your user name and password, and then you have entry.

Blackboard has many features.  Use as many of them as you wish.  Most
important for all of us under "communication" is the discussion board.  Here
is where students from all the institutions can engage in dialogues,
debates, discussions.  A second feature is the virtual classroom, which is a
chat room, where any number of students can "talk" to each other in real
time.  There are e-mail features, rosters, etc.

One attractive feature of Blackboard is that you and your students can opt
to use both the "general" pages, as well as the "group" pages.  If you click
on "group pages," you will see that I have created a folder for each
participating institution.  (If your school is not listed, tell me
immediately and I will add it.)  Your school has its own set of group pages,
and so here you can use the discussion board and virtual classroom and only
your class will access it.  This way we will not clutter up the "general"
pages with reports, assignments, etc. from other schools not pertinent to
your class.

The "general" pages, on the other hand, are intended for inter-institutional
exchanges.  The first of these will be the introductions. Since these serve
as a means of students at other schools getting interested in potential
partners as well as people to chat with, you should encourage your students
to write a good paragraph of 4-5 sentences about themselves.  There will be
a single "Introductions" folder for everyone to use.  You should also
encourage your students to read these introductions each week, right through
March when the Czech and Polish students join us.

I also strongly advise that you arrange for your class to meet as a class in
a computer lab as early in the semester as possible, to acquaint them with
Blackboard, and with the course web page
(http://www.wpunj.edu/cohss/sociology/soc399/).

Also, it is important that you send you class roster (with individual
student e-mail accounts) to Robert Harris as quickly as possible.  Your
students cannot access Blackboard until they, like you) get assigned a user
name and password.  Since he has all our institutions to deal with, plus
other responsibilities to keep him busy, the sooner you do this, the sooner
he can accommodate you.

Okay, that's it for now.  Let me know if you have any questions/problems.

Vince Parrillo