Seated from left, Rishi Prasad '98 and Stacy Ziman '99 take part in the Travellers of the Electronic Highway class on April 29, while instructor Fred Quenzer and teaching assistant Carina Hayek '98 look on. Adriana Rovers/University Photography
By Charlotte Kiefer and Daisy Dailey
With the rate of computer and network use on campus steadily climbing, issues surrounding the responsible use of technology are on many minds. To teach incoming students about the technologies available at Cornell and about what is, and what is not, acceptable behavior in terms of computer use, the "Travelers of the Electronic Highway" workshops were created. Cornell Information Technologies (CIT), in cooperation with the Faculty Advisory Board on Information Technologies (FABIT) and the Office of Student and Academic Services, developed the courses and first offered them in fall 1994.
In its January 1995 report to the provost and the vice president of information technologies, the advisory board requested that CIT enhance the Travelers of the Electronic Highway (TEH) program. "FABIT asked CIT to create and expand the TEH program because it is essential that a university in the information age provide its students with the means and the know-how to effectively utilize electronic information resources," said Ronnie Coffman, chair of FABIT and associate dean and director of research at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
FABIT recommended that the TEH course curriculum provide students with the necessary training to send e-mail, navigate the World Wide Web, use electronic library resources and become competent and responsible "travelers of the electronic highway."
"They believed that the incoming students should know how to use the Internet, especially electronic mail, so that students can submit and receive papers for their classes," said Lisa Gregory-Mix, program coordinator for TEH.
With funding from the Office of Student and Academic Services, CIT Training revamped the original TEH program for fall 1995. More than 60 returning undergraduates were hired to teach the classes, having been trained to present the specified curriculum, keep track of student attendance and assist participants as they worked through the hands-on portions of the course.
The workshops were held in computer labs all over campus, including CIT labs and college and department labs in Warren Hall, Mann Library, Carpenter Library and the ILR School. The School of Hotel Administration, the Johnson Graduate School of Management, the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Law School taught the workshop to their own students, using CIT's TEH course materials.
When the 5,500 new students, including first year, transfer and graduate students, entered Cornell in the fall of 1995, all were required to attend a TEH class. In the class, students received an overview of the Internet and were informed about responsible computer use and abuse policies at Cornell. They also saw a videotape emphasizing the importance of appropriate use of computers and networks at Cornell. Shown at each TEH session, the film discussed "netiquette," or courteous and considerate use of the Internet, as well as legal aspects of electronic harassment and computer abuse.
"TEH is a good way to impart the information about netiquette and the basics of Bear Access and using mail disks," said Melissa Ho, a first-year computer science major. Ho expressed concern that students who are already technologically literate may find the workshop somewhat basic, but added, "I still think it is relatively necessary." One of the challenges of putting together such a course, Gregory-Mix said, is to provide the necessary information to students who are already familiar with the technology, to students who are not at all familiar with it and to students who fall somewhere in between.
In general, student evaluations of the TEH class were positive. Ninety-three percent of those who responded said they felt more comfortable using the Internet after taking the workshop. Most students thought that the course, along with the guide they received at the workshop, gave them the skills to send and retrieve e-mail, find material for a paper and explore the Internet.
The use of computers and networks on campus is ubiquitous. A very large proportion of faculty, staff and students use e-mail, and all students use CoursEnroll, the electronic course request system, to pre-enroll for classes. More and more classes are requiring students to use electronic media for communication and coursework. Through programs such as TEH, Cornell students can become competent and responsible travelers of the electronic highway.
The TEH program is coordinated by Gregory-Mix under the direction of Sharon Sledge, manager of Technology Training Services (TTS), formerly known as CIT Training. It will again be required for all new students entering Cornell next fall. For more information about TEH and other TTS offerings, contact TTS by phone at 255-8000, by e-mail at cit_training@cornell.edu or on the World Wide Web at http://cit-training.cit.cornell.edu/l.