|
|
|
FIRST YEARS > FAQs Library > Distance Education Technical/Computer Requirements
 |
To participate in the FIRST YEARS
Certificate, you must satisfy certain technical requirements relating to
the computer system and Internet service you choose. These specifications,
plus needed software downloads, are detailed in this document.
Students participating in the distance-format courses must have access to:
Other operating systems and browser combinations have not been tested
by the Blackboard company and are therefore not "fully supported" by them.
In sum, this means that if you are using an operating system and browser
combination other than the ones listed above, you may need to make some
browser adjustments,
Note for Vista and Internet Explorer 7 users: You will need to do some special configuration to use the text boxes within Blackboard. Note for Netscape users: As of March, 2008, AOL no longer supports the Netscape browser. Downloadable versions are available from its archive page but, again, no official development or support is provided for these versions. You may, however, find unofficial support at one of the many Netscape communities. Recommended: Mozilla Firefox. Note for Mac users: Apple and Microsoft no longer support Internet Explorer for Macs. UNC recommends that Macintosh users migrate to more recent web browsing technologies such as Apple's Safari. Downloads: Windows users can upgrade Internet Explorer from Microsoft's download site and Mozilla's Firefox (recommended) and Apple's Safari (recommended) browsers, anti-virus programs, and other software free-of-charge from the UNC-Chapel Hill Shareware site. These days it is extremely important to protect your computer from viruses. There are many good antiviral packages, but make sure that whichever one you purchase is updated frequently and includes free downloads of the latest virus definitions. An excellent anti-virus program is AVG Free from http://free.grisoft.com/. In addition, as enrolled students, you can obtain Norton's Antivirus at the UNC-Chapel Hill Shareware site. 1) e-mail, 2) "mailto" Weblinks, and 3) "threaded discussion forums." E-mail: If you do not have a regular mail service, you can obtain a free e-mail account from http://www.hotmail.com. Once assigned an e-mail address, you can send/receive/archive mail at any computer with a Web connection. On occasion, your instructor may require you to create a document using an application program (e.g. Microsoft Word) and attach this document to your e-mail message. If you do not know how to attach files, check your e-mail help facility under the keyword: attachment. "Mailto" Weblinks: All course syllabi have instructor e-mail addresses which, when clicked within the Web document itself, display a "mail compose" form. To send the message(s) you compose, you must first configure your browser to tell it who you are and what your e-mail address is. That is, you must supply the browser with identification about you, the sender. If when you click a mailto link and are able to send it, you are configured. Success! If not, contact http://help.unc.edu to learn more about configuring your browser to handle "mailto links." Discussion forum: Most courses will use threaded discussion groups, which use the Web's hypertext capabilities to group messages by topic. Blackboard's versions of these are very simple to use. You can see them in action by taking FIRST YEARS' Blackboard Tutorial.
Also, to test whether you can play Quicktime® (.mov) and Windows Media® (.wmv) files, click on the links below. If you can play them, success! If not, you will need to download these players from the RealMedia, Quicktime and/or Windows Media* sites.
|
 06/25/06 |
© FIRST YEARS, Last update: July 2008, Maintained by FIRST YEARS Webmaster |
Should
you need any downloads, make sure you scroll to look for the free
readers. Sometimes the first download option will be for a product you
must buy. Keep looking! The free reader will be on the page somewhere.
