This course will use the "Internet Classroom Assistant" (ICA) network to hold online discussions, share ideas, extend classroom conversations, and interact with one another about important issues. This website will be, in a sense, our virtual communal space. ICA is not hard to use, but it will take a little time to familiarize yourself with its operation. I'll try to walk you through logging into the system and tell you a little bit about its features. This site will help you....

• Log in to ICA for the first time
• Log in and out to ICA once you have a username and password
• Discover how to post messages and contact classmates
• Find out the benefits of online class discussion
• Consult a "Help" section for additional questions or problems posting a message

1. So far you've gotten to the "Catholic Social Thought" site, clicked on "Forum" in the left frame, and clicked "Instructions" right beneath that. A new window called "Internet Classroom Assistant" should now come up. At the top right of that page, click on "Join a Class." It will be right under the heading "New Users Start Here:" This will take you to a page where you will need to enter a key to sign yourself up for the "Catholic Social Thought" forum. (Note that the key contains a zero and not the capital letter "O".)
   
   
   • The class key is for your section is TZ8780ZCZ7
     
   
   
2. After you enter the Class Key, press "Join the Class --->." You should now see a screen that says "Join 'Catholic Social Thought." Fill in a username and a password. Keep in mind that there are over a half million users on this system and so your username has to be something fairly unique (something with letters and numbers, like the Saint Mary's login, should work fine). Also, be sure to enter your e-mail address along with your first and last names. Even though these latter boxes are listed as "optional," it's really important that you identify yourself so that we all know who's making which comment. Then press "Join the Class!"
   
   
3. You should now get a screen welcoming you to ICA. It will also display your new username and password. A copy of these things will be sent to you at the e-mail address you entered to verify your registration. This e-mail will again provide your username, password, class name, and today's date. Keep this e-mail for future reference in case you ever forget your username or password. You'll also see a statement saying that "You may now login to ICA at ...." Click on that address. You also have the option of clicking on the button reading "Finish Registration." It doesn't really matter which of these you select, as both of them will take you to a screen where you enter your username and password and then select "Log In to the ICA." You should see your name in the upper left corner of the screen. In the middle of the screen, under "Home - Catholic Social Thought," you'll see a summary of the activity since you've logged in last. On the left side of the screen, you'll see some of the things you can do with this software. We'll explore those in a minute, but for now, there's an EXTREMELY IMPORTANT STEP to attend to: In the green-ish rectangle to the left of the ICA page, click on "Edit User Profile." You'll then be taken to a screen where you can change your password, e-mail address, etc. Look at the very last item on that page ("Send a copy of Personal Messages via Email"). Set it to "Yes." Then click the button "Edit User Info." This will allow you to receive in your home e-mail mailbox any messages that your classmates send you through ICA.

   You are now signed up and ready to go. Note: Anytime after this that you log into ICA, you can just use the link labelled "Forum" in the left frame of the "Catholic Social Thought" site. More on this in the next section.

Look at the upper right of the page where it addresses "Current Users." Enter your username and password and press "Log in." You'll be taken to the class section that you previously signed up for. Make sure it's the right one. As just said above, you should see your name in the upper left corner of the screen. In the middle of the screen, under "Home - Catholic Social Thought," you'll see a summary of the activity since you've logged in last. On the left side of the screen, you'll see some of the things you can do with this software. To learn more about these things see the next section of these instructions.

To log out of ICA, just click "Log Out," which is the very bottom entry in the green-ish rectangle.

In the green-ish rectangle that appears on the left side of the ICA screen after you've logged in, you'll see 5 items under the class name and section time and before a horizontal black line. These are

• Conferencing
• Link Sharing
• Documents
• Class Schedule
• Class Members

Most of what we'll use the Internet Classroom Assistant for will be found under Conferencing, which is the first item in the green-ish rectangle at the left. When you select "Conferencing," you'll see a window labelled "Conferencing Topics" and a list below that of all topics for which students or I have already left messages. There's a default selected for "View All Topics." This just means that when you come to this page, you'll see every topic that's been created for the class. But, once more than one topic has been created, you can also set this to show only the topics that someone's created or contributed to since your last login.

You can either begin your own topic or add on to a topic that has already created. Now, some specific instructions about the conferencing features:

• To create a new topic: Select "Add New Topic" right under the "Conferencing Topics" label. You'll then be taken to a screen which will ask you to specify a "Topic Name." Once you do that, click "Add Topic." You'll then be taken to a screen which will ask you to post the first message to the new topic you've just created. After entering a subject and a message text, click "Post New Message." If you now click on "Conferencing," you'll see your new topic with one message posted to it (yours!). You can always go back to the list of topics by clicking on "Conferencing."
  
  
• To add on to a previously created topic: When you see the list of all topics (which, by the way, are always arranged so that the most recent ones are on top), select the one that you want by double-clicking on the topic. You'll then see all of the messages that have been posted on that topic. You can then do one of two things:
  
  
  • To contribute your thoughts to this particular topic and join the discussion, click on "Post Message to (Name of Topic)." This will be right at the top under "Conferencing Topic." You'll then have to specify a subject and enter a message text. Click "Post New Message," and you'll see that your message has been added to the conference.
    
    
  • You can also reply more specifically to one person's comments. That is, suppose someone has already contributed to a particular topic and you really want to follow up that person's comments with a question or comment of your own directed very specifically to the previous comment made by the other person. You can then click on "Reply," which is right above the person's comments. You'll then be able to enter a subject and message text. While you're doing this, you can see the text of the "Original Message" (= the one you're replying to) at the bottom of the page. After you enter your message, click "Post New Message." You'll then see that you've posted a reply to the original message. If you've selected "Show Replies," you'll see the actual text of the message. If you've selected "Hide Replies," you'll just see that one additional reply has been posted. Important: Be sure when replying to someone that you select "Reply" and NOT "Send a personal message to (Name)." Sending a personal message just means that what you wrote goes only to that person's e-mail and won't show up in the online conference to be read by everyone else. "Reply" means that what you write will be posted on the website.
    
    
  • In both of the above cases, it would be very helpful if your "Subject" line gave an indication of the content of your message that names the person to whom you're replying and gives a hint of how you're bridging off what that person has said, as in "Agreeing with Jane Doe."
    
    
  • Note: It's also a very good idea to write your comment out on a word processor and copy and paste into the system to make your posting, as some students do occasionally lose work online. That will take about 30 seconds extra of your time, but you'll always have a back-up. People using Nicenet do occasionally report the loss of their message when they go to post it online.
  
  
• Finally, ICA gives you a number of options about how to view the conference:
  
  
  • Next to "Message Layout" at the top of the page, you can choose "View Summaries Only" or "View Entire Message." 'Summaries' just gives you the subject name and the number of replies posted to it. 'View Entire' gives you the full text of the message. "Print View" puts all the messages on their own page to make it easier for printing out.
    
    
  • Next to "Sort Order" at the top, you have a choice of "Newest on Bottom" or "Newest on Top." On the bottom means that the most recent messages appear at the bottom of the page. This is probably the more intuitive way to go since you have the sense of adding comments at the end of a previous exchange. 'Newest on top' means just the opposite.

In addition to the occasional specific posting assignments, I will ask you (at the very least) to visit the class conference and contribute to the discussion in the "Cyber Cafe" approximately once every other week. A more precise schedule can be found on your syllabus for the minimum amount of times to submit postings. At least once every 2 weeks, then, I want you contribute to the Cyber Cafe (some suggestions about how to do that and the kinds of things you might say are found on your syllabus).

"Class Conferencing" also accepts HTML, the computer code used to construct web pages. If you know HTML, you can insert links into your comments. If you ever want a quick lesson, I'm available for that as well.

Use Class Members to e-mail individual classmates. (You can also do this by clicking on the camera in the left frame of the "Catholic Social Thought" home page and clicking on a name. If you wish to e-mail more than one person at once and (especially if you wish to e-mail the whole class), go to the section labelled "Personal Messages" in the green-ish rectangle and click "Send." You'll now be able to check off as many of your classmates as you wish and send them a group mailing. Just click "Send to All" if you want to e-mail everyone. Fill in a subject, write your message, and click "Send Message." This will now go to everyone's personal e-mail accounts (that's why we messed with "Options/Tools" above).