ETC March Newsletter

ETC Educational Technology Center for Faculty and Staff Development

B U R L I N G T O N C O U N T Y C O L L E G E

March, 1999

Technology Tips:

Web Page Design:

When a user tries to access your "home page" on the Internet, if they do not enter a filename as the last argument in the URL, then "index.html" or "index.htm" is assumed. In other words, "index.html" is the default filename for all home pages on the web.

What this means is that you should (with very few exceptions) name your home page index.html, or at BCC name it index.htm, since we do not support "long " filenames. If you name your page something else, such as home.htm or welcome.htm you run the very real risk that people who are searching for your web page might never find it!

If you do not have a file named index.htm on our web server, and if the user does not happen to know what you did call your homepage, they will get an error message.

So, the bottom line: unless you are trying to hide your web page, call your home page index.htm.

If you did not understand the preceding article, take The Internet and the World Wide Web class at the ETC this semester.

Presentation Design:

Computer monitors and projectors have several different attributes. One is physical size, usually measured as a diagonal across the screen. The other is resolution or "logical size" which is usually measured in picture elements or pixels.

Common screen sizes are 13" to 17" for monitors and common resolutions are 640x480 pixels and 800x600 pixels. Changing the physical size of your computer display is almost always "OK." (Sometimes it's great!) But when you vary the logical size of your display you might notice some changes in what you are presenting, since you can now fit more, or less on the screen. Therefore it is important to note the screen resolution of the computer on which you design your presentation and the screen resolution on the computer/projector you will be using to present the finished product, since not all projectors support today's standard resolutions.

If you did not understand the preceding article take Computer Based Presentations at the ETC this semester.

Last Chance:

I have asked the Office of Information Technology to do some major software maintenance on the computers in the ETC lab. If you have any work saved to computers in the ETC lab, it is vital that you copy all of your files onto floppy or Zip disks prior to these software changes! If you do not copy your files off of the ETC lab computers before we upgrade them, you will almost certainly lose some work!

ETC Resources:

Currently the Educational Technology Center has the following periodicals on file:

Interactivity

New Media

Web Techniques

Syllabus

T*H*E Journal

Internet World

Internet Week

Faculty and staff are welcome to peruse, use, re-use, abuse, borrow or steal back issues of any periodical currently available in the ETC. No need to ask permission. If you see something of interest, take it!

How to contact the ETC:

Located in the Lewis Parker Center, Room 311A

You can reach the Center at phone extension 7782

Or by e-mail to: Mhoffman@bcc.edu

ETC Services:

One-on-one tutorials - by appointment only
Introductory classes - by appointment only
Advanced classes - by appointment only
Regularly scheduled classes at the beginning and intermediate level for all members of the faculty, staff and administration

(see accompanying material for dates and times)