The Techno-Pedagogical Context of Distance Learning: Conceptual Roots - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 44

Wolfe, D. (1994). The BBS construction kit . New
York: John Wiley& Sons, Inc.

data is transmitted across a digital circuit. Usually,
modem speed is described in bps. For example, a
“28.8 modem” can transfer 28,800 bits per second.
Bulletin Board System (BBS): A system
that lets you post and read messages. You can
read other messages, or wait a bit until someone
responds to your “post”. The Discussion Forum
at MacintoshOS.com is a type of bulletin board.
Most software/hardware vendors maintain a BBS
to provide technical support and allow registered
users to download patches and updates.
Discussion Group (or Forum): A Discussion
Group is sort of the Web's version of a Bulletin
Board. Users post messages and respond to other
users posts about specific topics and interests.
Domain Name: Plain language identifier/ad-
dress. The first part is who we are, the second part
stands for the larger area. Other common suffixes
are.edu,.gov,.biz,.mil, and.org. Others include.fn,.
ca, or.it (etc). These endings show that the site is
hosted overseas (France, Canada, Italy, etc.) Do-
main Names are unique, and are registered through
a governing organization called InterNIC. Some
domain names are registered but not “active”, that
is, you can't visit them with your Web browser.
Some businesses register their Domain Names
so they can have an Internet e-mail address, but
don't develop a real Web site. Other sites are just
“under construction”.
Domain Name System (DNS): The DNS al-
lows you to access a site with its Domain Name
instead of its numerical IP address. In other words,
you can remember “www.MacintoshOS.com”
instead of 204.250.196.100.
Ethernet: The most common way of con-
necting computers in a LAN. This cable ties
your offices computers: together, and allows you
to transfer information to other clients in your
network at up to 10,000,000 bps.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP): The most
common way to download and upload (get and
put) files on the Internet. When you download
something from our shareware page, you are con-

Wooley, D. R. (1994). PLATO: The emergence
of online community. Retrieved August 26, 2005
from http://thinkofit.com/plato/dwplato.htm

Young, J. (2002). 'Hybrid' teaching seeks to
end the divide between traditional and online
instruction. The Chronicle of Higher Education
[electronic version: From the issue dated March
22, 2002] Information technology. Retrieved
October 10, 2004 from http://chronicle.com/free/
v48/i28/28a03301.htm.

keY TeRmS AND DeFINITIONS

Advanced Research Projects Agency Net-
work (ARPANET): ARPANET was born in the
late 1960's as a way to mitigate communications
interruptions initiated by a nuclear war.
Agent: As the name implies, an agent performs
operations such as file extraction and preparation
for an application. GOPHER and ARCHIE are
considered to be examples of agents.
Anonymous FTP: Logging on to a server
anonymously allows you to access and download
files in the public domain. If you are logging on
to an FTP site from your web browser, chances
are you will be logged on as “anonymous” au-
tomatically. Most FTP sites support anonymous
access, but not all.
Archie: Archie is a program that allows you
to search the Internet for files located in archives.
Once you've located them, you can use FTP to
download them.
Authentication: The process of entering your
username and password is know as authentication.
You prove, or “authenticate”, that you are who
you say you are when you enter your password.
Baud rate (also known as BPS): A term used
to measure transfer speed over an analog circuit.
A unit of measurement that describes how fast