Avots, Juliette

Grodberg, Miriam

English

The University of Kansas: Journals@KU

NETWORK UPDATE Juliette Avots Miriam Grodberg Wellesley High School, Wellesley, MA WHAT IS THIS NEW COLUMN ABOUT? "Network Update" will be a regular feature reflecting the growing importance of electronic networking for the IALL mem-bership. It will include resources useful for the technology professional as well as for the language instructor, and we encourage you to send us your proven ideas as well as those which we can brainstorm together. The column will endeavor to bring to IALL members pertinent information on listservs, electronic networks, communications soft-ware and student use of networking. We welcome reviews of publications and prod-ucts that facilitate the use of computer net-works in the teaching of foreign languages. In this issue weare including news about MINITEL and a review of a new book on the Internet. MINITEL UPDATE (For an introduction to the Minitel, see Hammadou, "Student Interaction with MINITEL Telecommunications," v. 24 (Spring 1991) of the Journal.) Vol. 26, No. 1, Winter 1993 Minitel Services Company is now offering a Super Subscriber Program to facilitate budgeting for Mini tel connections by educational institutions. In the past schools had to pay by credit card for each hour of connect time, and therefore were not able to monitor or budget for Minitel costs. With the new program, schools can purchase blocks of Mini tel time in $100 in-crements. A warning message will notify subscribers in advance as to how much time is left on their account. In addition, mem-bers of this program will receive a 12% bonus, e.g. a $100 account will include an additional $12 worth of credit which can be applied towards the use of any service. For further details, contact Cece Drummond at MinitelServicesCompanyat(212)399-0080. New software by CTLink makes it pos-sible to upload and download files directly to and from Minitel services. This feature has tremendous implications for language r---Juliette Avots is a French teacher, and Miriam Grodberg is a Spanish teacher at Wellesley High School, Wellesley, Massa-chusetts. 55 Network Update instructors and students who will now have the opportunity to edit texts off-line before uploading them. It should also reduce costs for connect time. (In France this particular software is distributed to schools by the Ministere de !'Education Nationale under the name EDULink.) The CI'Link software is available for both PC and Macintosh com-puters and includes auto-logon capabilities allowing the user to connect quickly to spe-cific services, the ability to save screens/ sessions to disk and to view these files once they are saved. Also included is a simple test transfer function for sending ASCll text, and a proprietary x.25 file transfer protocol which may be used to upload and down-load files between personal computers and videotex services similarly equipped with CTLink. The Macintosh version includes a print function that will print screens in ASCIT, Minitel or Alex modes. For informa-tion write or call: CfL Communications Inc., The Cable Building, 611 Broadway, Suite 430, New York, NY 10012, phone: (212) 477-2424. Foreign language instructors wishing to find a partner school may want to partici-pate in the Edutel Class Project, facilitated by Bernard Moreau, Linguistic Attache of the French Consulate in San Francisco. U.S. classes are partnered with French classes for joint projects. Teachers wishing to ob-tain a boite aux lettres and a French corre-spondent should contact the Bureau d' Action Linguistique in San Francisco: phone (415) 397-4330, ext. 248; FAX (415) 397-0239; Consulat General de France, Bu-reaud' Action Linguistique,Projet EDUTEL-CLASSE, 540 Bush Street, San Francisco, CA94106. FCEN (French Cultural and Educational Network) is a cultural service project spon-sored by the French Foreign Ministry, soon to be available nationwide. The service will include French cultural news and events in major US cities, contacts for travel in France, informationonstudentexchangesinFrance, resources for French teachers, and French media listings in the US. For more informa-tion, or for general information on the Minitel, contact Adam Steg, 300 Poydras, Suite 2105, New Orleans, LA 70810, phone (504)529-7502orBernardMoreau(seepara-graph above). TEACH is a Minitel information service for French teachers in the US. It can be accessed by simply typing the code TEACH directly from the MSC welcome screen. Five choices are offered: 1) Conventions, Work-shops, Seminars; 2) Educational Tools and Methods; 3) Certification of French (le D.E.L.F.); 4) Grants and Fellowships for teachers; 5) Suggestion Box. Students seeking international corre-spondents may now participate in a live Minitel chat on 3615 FRANCEUSA. The exchangetakesplaceon Thursdays at 19h00-20h00 in France (13h00-14h00 Eastern Time, 12h00 -13h00 Central Time, 11h00-12h00 Mountain Time, 10h00-11h00 Pacific Time.) Announcements of changes will be posted on TEACH and on FRANCEUSA. Although the search options for age of the correspon-dent start at 16, there are NO age restrictions on FRANCEUSA. FRANCEMONDE is a new service pro-viding news summaries of the French press, information on study programs in France and other items of interest to francophones and francophiles. To obtain the latest infor-mation on access to FRANCEMONDE, check the announcements posted on TEACH. LISTSERVS The daily ''Revue de Presse" is now available by e-mail on the Internet from the Mission Scientifique at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. Those interested in subscribing should send a message 56 IALL Journal of Language Learning Technologies requesting a subscription to frog@guvax.georgetown.edu, subject "in-scription." A "fiche d'inscription" will be sent to be filled out and returned. Frognet was originally designed for university re-searchers in the sciences, but has been used by French teachers at the college and sec-ondary level as a news bulletin. SCOLA, the not-for-profit service that brings foreign television programming to schools and universities across the United States, has recently established its own elec-tronic discussion list. Subscribe to the SCOLA-L list by sending an e-mail mes-sage to LISTSERV®WA YNEST1.BITNETor listserv@cms.cc. wayne.edu. The content of the message should read: SUBSCRIBE SCOLA-L your_full_name If you need assistance in subscribing, call Dan Cwietrniewicz at (313) 577-0787. You will receive a welcome message, and may then send messages to the list directly to this address: SCOLAL@WAYNEST1.BITNET or to scolal@cms.cc. wayne.edu BOOK REVIEW The Whole Internet: User's Guide and Catalog, by Ed Krol (Sebastopol: O'Reilly, 1992) 376 pages. $24.95 Reviewed by Matt Carter, University of Colorado at Boulder carterm@spot.colorado.edu Though use of the Internet, a world-wide conglomeration of computer networks, has expanded significantly over the past five years, there are still obstacles that deter many who might benefit from materials available through this source. In the past, one either learned Internet skills from friends or through time-consuming Vol. 26, No.1, Winter 1993 Network Update experimentation on the Internet. For ex-ample, to obtain Ed Krol'searlier help guide, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet," one had to search Internet sites or find some-one who could do so. Now there is a book available in print that addresses users' needs. In The Whole Internet, Krol strives to make able Internet users of computer-literate pro-fessionals and academicians. Krol is gener-ally successful in creating such a book; how-ever one should bear in mind that this book will be most useful to those who already have some proficiency with a computer. The majority of The Whole Internet is dedi-cated to explanation of skills and resources that the reader will need to begin explora-tion and use of the Internet. Krol presents step-by-step instructions for standard lntemetactivities. For those who have never used electronic mail, or who have limited e-mail experience, The Whole Internet provides details on everything from deciphering the reason an e-mail packet was returned as undeliverable, to how to subscribe to group mailings. The Internet itself is not restricted toe-mail, and neither is Krol's book. Extensive text is devoted to each of the following: remote file transfer (FTP), discussion groups (network news), and information andre-source searches (WAIS, World-Wide Web, Archie, and Gopher). Most examples are performed on the prevalent UNIX system, accompanied by explanations of particular UNIX commands. Though these instruc-tions do not make for scintillating reading, they compose a good how-to manual for the user, no matter what computer system one uses to access the Internet. At the back of the book is a catalog that furnishes a sampling of the breadth of Internet offerings. The catalog has a few resources of immediate interest to those working in foreign lan-guages-a library of Chinese classics in the original language (p. 310) and a collection of recipes in German from Stuttgart (p. 294), to 57 Network Update mention but two. One must remember, though, that this catalog is only a small selection of materials available on the Internet. The Whole Internet uses standard Internet parlance throughout, but Krol consistently explains these sometimes obscure terms. In addition, Krol provides a short glossary for those so disposed. Aside from explaining specific tasks, Krol also supplies general information on the Internet and its constitu-ent elements, such as an explanation of how data is transported on the network and how material navigates from point to point. Though information on the inner workings of the Internet may not necessarily be of immediate interest to all, those who read · this material will be better informed Internet users. Like the Internet itself, there is some-thing of interest for most anyone in The Whole Internet. Whether one seeks access to remote library catalogs and databases, wishes to search for foreign language in-struction software, or just desires to com-municate with colleagues by e-mail, The Whole Internet is a valuable reference. After reading this book, users will have many tools-and probably a bundle of ideas-to put to use on the Internet. Forinformationon purchasing The Whole Internet,call(800)998-9938. Written requests may be sent to Brian Erwin, Public Relations at O'Reilly and Associates, 103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, CA 95472. Contributions/suggestions for the "Network Update" column may be sent directly to Juliette Avots or Mim Grodberg. Mailing address: Wellesley High School,SO Rice Street, Wellesley, MA 02181; email: javots@lucy.wellesley.edu, mgrodberg®lucy.wellesley.edu 58 IALL Journal of Language Learning Technologies -

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