- Wednesday, February 17, 1999 1:31:45 PM ...
All of the recent postings about First Class have been very interesting. I have
been overseeing a First Class bulletin board here at Noble and Greenough School
ever since one of my then sophomore students (Alex Slawsby) on 12/7/94 (Larry
Bird's 38th birthday) announced that he got the server working. He named it
NoblesNet and we were off to the races. I was a skeptic at first, but within a
year I was a believer. In the summer of 1996, our headmaster, Dick Baker,
announced to the Nobles faculty that NoblesNet was to be our main organ of
communication. ... I have posted a huge collection of graphics and text
information about our use of First Class (NoblesNet) on the summercore web pages,
including screen shots of various academic bulletin boards that have become part
of the life-blood of this school. ... To visit, go to www.summercore.com -->
click on SC Primer, chap 2: First Class Overview --> click on SC Primer, chap 2:
First Class Tips & Tricks ... We occasionally issue "visitor accounts" to
computer tech people or administrators at other schools. Please contact me if
interested. Steve ... Steve Bergen, Computer Coordinator Noble & Greenough School
- one more from Ed Siegfried who is the
co-overseer of ISED ... steve p.s. when I saw 3 yearbook kids in the labs last
night at 6pm drinking in the labs, I said to myself "if at nobles, they lose
their N License for for 2 months, a privilege on noblesnet" .. it takes me 33
seconds to do so because of the KIS nature of first class ... they HATE losing
their N license (n for normal) and the associated NoblesNet privileges ...
Ed Siegfried writes "the best, clearest" exposition on First Class: Here's a
little different take on it:
Students at Milton, as elsewhere, are vitally interested in race, gender, and
identity. We find that the conferencing features of MiltONline (our FirstClass
system) are of tremendous value in supporting them in their struggles with these
issues. Each of our many student interest clubs and organizations operates its
own conference area, where discussion in too-brief meetings can be extended,
where ideas can be thrashed about, and where information can be sent out. Each
conference is open to all, operates under a charter defining its focus, and each
has 2 or 3 moderators, adult and student. We teach MiltONline moderators how to
manage productive discussion. ... The advantages of FirstClass for this purpose
are (a) that it is easy to use and reachable from anywhere, (b) secure, meaning
there is no anonymity, and (c) controllable, meaning that conference moderators
can keep conversations focused. All three qualities are necessary. ...
Multicultural discussion means lots of discussion. It's very important to us. For
this purpose alone a good mail-and-conferencing system is worth the expense. You
could say we are using computers to fight racism. ... Ed Siegfried, Milton
Academy, MA
- Friday, February 5, 1999 8:27:29 AM
Dunn@BESTWEB.NET writes: >I am interested to learn how other schools are handling
email accounts for >students. Does your school give out accounts to all students
or who?
response: All students grade 6-12 have their own email accounts. A
fascinating project going on right now involves our 8th grader English students
posting to FirstClass conference folders on a topic the teacher has requested;
they vary but this week's is "choose an important quote from a book your reading
and analyze the significance of the quote." The boys all read each other's posts
and can ask questions and give comments. They are so excited to participate and
their writing is improving as well. ... Pam Livinstone, Chestnut Hill Academy, PA
- Sunday, February 14, 1999 1:29:52 PM ...
From: Joel Backon ... Subject: Re: First Class ...
Your question is a difficult one to answer unless you poll all the schools who
use FirstClass, particularly FCIS. We question the value of "sustained evidence
of academically substantive use of the software." We view FirstClass conferences
as a supplement to classroom dialog. We also see many of the traditional
FirstClass conference functions migrating to our Intranet. The value of the
FirstClass conference, for us, is to allow a teacher to continue or begin a class
discussion outside of the classroom. Of course, to make this happen, one needs
more than FirstClass. Would your culture tolerate classroom-like interchange
during hours outside of the classroom? Do students have both the opportunity and
the access to make such a conference work successfully? Does the teacher have the
time to monitor, and perhaps direct, such a conference? FirstClass, like most
software, is simply a tool or enabler. Those teachers at Choate who are committed
to making on-line conferences work have been successful. The others have not. ...
Joel Backon, Director of Information Technology, Choate Rosemary Hall,
Wallingford, CT
- Sunday, February 14, 1999 4:29:36 PM ...
From: Bill IVEY ... Hi!
First of all, I feel that FirstClass conferences can serve schools well in ways
other than academic. We have over 30 student conferences currently running in
our school, excluding the folders assigned for each class. Each class year and
each club have folders, and there are as well general-purpose folders such as
"Community Issues" or "Entertainment Reviews." Finally, there are the "please
check these daily" folders such as "Student Announcements." Traffic in most of
these student conferences is high, and ranges from announcements to issue-based
discussion to just fooling around. Our school has always had a strong community
feel, and FirstClass has provided us another useful forum for community-building.
While not a strictly academic use, I think this is an extremely important
purpose. ... Academic utilization of FirstClass has varied widely in our school,
and is largely dependent on individual teachers. Many, though not all of us, use
FirstClass to post class goals and objectives, homework assignments and other
basic and important information. At least in my classes, I see much less of the
"I wasn't here yesterday so I don't know what the homework was." kind of excuse.
Language teachers use the Private Chat from time to time, and recently I was able
to combine this with email to do an activity on writing and responding to
personal ads during a French 1 unit on adjectives. One of our History teachers
used her class folder for students to work collaboratively to develop a series of
oral presentations. So, while conferences themselves may not yet be meeting
their academic potential, the FirstClass system itself is becoming more and more
integrated into our teaching. ... And, in the end, student conferences have
become important enough to our school that when we were looking into upgrading
FirstClass, and were checking out alternative systems, we refused to look at any
system which did not include conferencing capabilities. (By the way, we are
sticking with FirstClass.) ... Take care, Bill Ivey, Stoneleigh-Burnham School
Greenfield, MA
- Tuesday, February 16, 1999 3:18:02 PM ...
From: A forum for independent school educators,ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU ...
Subject: Re(3): First Class ... To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU ...
In my earlier post I spoke about the potential for FC use in the classroom. I
avoided talking about the larger issue of community life because I didn't want to
enter the boarding/day discussion. In fact, to me, that is where the maximum
amount of growth and use has been. ... I see integrated technology as doing 3
things at a school. ... 1. Altering the communication paradigm. ... 2. Increasing
clerical productivity ... 3. Changing and enhancing the learning environment and
the learning relationship. ... Email alone makes a quantum change in an
institutution. Email with an integrated chat/conferencing component is another
quantum step forward. We find that FC conferences are used for running debates,
tag sales, clubs, classes, project groups, faculty committees, tech support,
general and specific announcements, sports teams, and other uses. There is
probably much more community-building related conference activity than all the
curricular use. It is like having hundreds of personalized ISED listservs on
campus-one for each separate use. Email alone doesn't do that. An FC Grade
conference for us is the glue of our FMP based comment writing system. ... The
next great challenge and experiment is to see if we can mirror this to include
other schools and other people into the "instant community". We have built a
fledgling CT group and look forward to extending the reach. If it is useful it
will grow, and if not, it will die. We have the power to cheaply and easily
connect educators and resources all over the globe together for mutual sharing.
... In the future these kinds of systems have the potential to break the barriers
of a daily schedule, and a specific location. That is both a challenge and a
threat. For boarding schools at least, we promote ourselves as providing a living
experience that is unique and beneficial. In past years and generations, students
at these boarding schools were nearly completely isolated from the outside world.
They received a 24hr indoctrination-in the best sense of the word. ... The
Internet and email and modern communication open the world up to boarding
students, and change the influences that a student receives. I would think that
some schools would regard that as a danger and not an advance. Time will tell.
... I think it is clear, however, that a conferencing/email system like FC is has
more effect on the community than Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PageMaker, PageMill,
Hyperstudio, Netscape and Clarisworks combined. Educators, administrators and
students accept and adopt those programs into their working days much easier once
they begin regarding the computer as their primary and most powerful means of
communicating. It is the change in the communication paradigm that serves as the
impetus for the conversations about pedagogy. ... Kevin McAllister ... Loomis
Chaffee School
- Tuesday, February 16, 1999 2:01:21 PM ...
Subject: Re(2): First Class ...
Using software such as FirstClass to enable coversation about a topic outside the
confines of the classroom is particularly interesting to me. It seems to me that
the major factor, as Joel indicates, is the culture of the school. If the
students and faculty are generally engaged in academic conversation "offline"
then software is an obvious and natural augmentation. If not, it will take a
concerted effort on the part of the teacher to sustain itself. ... Nontheless I
am rather convinced that this is the wave of the future as it is already taking
place both at the University level and in the business world on a widespread
basis. For example, Apple computer has ongoing conversations between
programmers in Cupertino, CA and those stationed in India on a daily basis.
These conversations are rich and meaningful and are greatly enhanced by
electronic media. (Time differences make phone conversations difficult to
arrange.) ... School size is another factor. In a small school with only one or
two sections of a course being taught there may not be enough of critical mass to
keep an offline conversation active. ... -Mark Lawton,The Urban School
- Joel Backon writes: >Your question is a
difficult one to answer unless you poll all the >schools who >use FirstClass,
particularly FCIS. We question the value of "sustained >evidence >of academically
substantive use of the software." We view FirstClass >conferences as a supplement
to classroom dialog. We also see many of the >traditional FirstClass conference
functions migrating to our Intranet. The >value of the FirstClass conference, for
us, is to allow a teacher to >continue >or begin a class discussion outside of
the classroom. Of course, to make >this >happen, one needs more than FirstClass.
Would your culture tolerate >classroom-like interchange during hours outside of
the classroom? Do >students >have both the opportunity and the access to make
such a conference work >successfully? Does the teacher have the time to monitor,
and perhaps >direct, >such a conference? FirstClass, like most software, is
simply a tool or >enabler. >Those teachers at Choate who are committed to making
on-line conferences >work >have been successful. The others have not. ... >Joel
Backon >Director of Information Technology >Choate Rosemary Hall >333 Christian
St. >Wallingford, CT 06492
- Sunday, February 14, 1999 1:01:11 PM ...
From: A forum for independent school educators,ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU ...
Subject: Re: First Class ...
>Am I missing out on some really fine academic work with students >collaborating
online? Has the reality of conferencing not yet caught up >with >the potential?
RESPONSE: I think this is a crucial and important question. I think the quick
answer is "not yet, but..." ... Technology intesects with the classroom at many
points. It appears in the form of better presented handouts and classroom
materials, it appears in student's access to online databases or the Web, in
students doing simulations or collecting lab data with digital probes, students
publishing with desktop programs or web authoring tools, and in drill and
practice software...among other places. ... If the classroom is a traditional
class of 15-18 with a single teacher using 45 minute periods to lecture and quiz
and test, then most of this will have no impact on the overall learning. Having
those 18 students write in a laptop instead of on paper will also not change the
situation very much. ... Networks, laptops, online resources, FirstClass-like
email/conferencing systems and simulations will only live up to their "potential"
when the teaching/learning parameters change first. ... One should probably ask
what is meant by "their potential". I assume that this refers to the hope that
these tools will encourage more self-discovery, more learner to learner
interaction, more different ways of exploring and reporting knowledge, more ways
of encouraging reaching outside the specified curriculum to other ways of
thinking and learning. ... It is my belief that the new tools of technology can
permit these things, can enhance them and support them, but the tools themselves
cannot change the structure and the rules of classroom and schedule organization.
A FirstClass conference for a class that is organized around 25 lectures, 6
quizzes, 2 tests, one final and a 10 page research paper probably will not see a
lot of activity or bring out the potential. ... Technology allows for things that
were not easily possible before. For one thing, FirstClass conferences allow for
asynchronous learning and reporting. It is possible that there would be no such
thing as "not in class", "snowday" or "weekend". Some people's initial reaction
to this is horror, because they imagine people totally responsible to every class
every day the way that they are responsible to a synchronous experience. This
does not have to be the case. People can work at their own pace in their own
space, interacting with others over the course of days and weeks. This could
provide rooms for different styles and different personal timetables. ... If the
teacher places zero emphasis on the activities in the conference, then the
conference will not be productive. Only if the teacher uses the conference as a
crucial tool in the learning will it have a chance to live up to its potential.
... Running a virtual class is not simple nor without great problems. There are
lots of sites that can talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of this new
thing. It is not a panacea, but it has "potential". ... Here at Loomis Chaffee we
have had mixed results, and again I think it reflects the structure of the class
and the direction by the teacher. Some of our teachers have used the
conferencesactively and brilliantly. They use it for extra help, posting sample
exams or quizzes, facilitating group work, publishing results, handing in all
assignments and getting all materials. In those cases, it is a stunning success.
Students have access to the class materials anywhere at any time on any machine,
boarder or day student, Mac or Wintel, while on home leave in Arizona or home in
nearby Bloomfield. ... Do conferencing system live up to their potential? ... I
think it a bit like asking if giving citizens of other countries the right to
vote for their officials lives up to the potential. ... Kevin J. McAllister,
Technology Coordinator, Loomis Chaffee School, MA
- Wednesday, November 10, 1999 9:28:39 AM
1) Is FC MAPI compliant, specifically, will it integrate seamlessly with MS
Office 97/2000 and Crystal Report writer? Do any schools need or use email that
is MAPI compliant? I believe that the latest FC version is MAPI compliant. We
haven't actually made use of this feature yet.
2) How difficult is the conversion from an antiquated MS Mail system and
internet email running off of lynux? Is there an easy way to add 400 users from
an existing system (and we are looking to do so over Christmas break) ... A
FirstClass administrator can use "batch" commands to create users and other
things. You would need to get a text file in a particular format out of your
current email system. Often it is difficult to get passwords from an email
system, so if that is the case with you, then ofcourse all of your users on the
new system would have some other password. It is not difficult to use FirstClass
batch commands, but I wouldn't expect to install a brand new system and do this
without taking time to read the admin manual and/or get some help from an
experienced FC admin.
3) Are the any issues with FC and Office or Novell 3.10 Sp1 that others have
run into? FirstClass server must run on its own server (either mac or NT, not
Novell). Individual users can use either the Mac or Windows (or even DOS)
FirstClass Client. They can also use a web browser, but I personally find this
much more awkward. FirstClass server can use TCP/IP, IPX (Novell), or Appletalk
(or any combination) so this pretty much covers all of the kinds of computers you
currently have on your network. ... I am not sure what you are after when you ask
about issues or interoperability with MS Office. We certainly have seen no
conflicts with MS Office. And FC can handle file attachments in any format.
Are many schools in the area using FirstClass? CAIS (Connecticut Independent
Schools) have mad a big push to standardize it. Any other responses on why we
should use FirstClass instead of Exchange would be greatly appreciated. ... Quite
a few schools in the Boston area use FirstClass. We at Park School have been
using it very happily since 1994. In my oppinion, it is a great product for
schools, especially if you don't have the tech staff to manage MS Exchange.
Although I have not personally managed an Exchange server, my colleagues who do
say that you need to be pretty technical to set one up and keep it going. ... One
suggestion: If you do decide to go with FirstClass, I recommend that you buy from
a SoftArc reseller. They often provide much better support than SoftArc, who have
grown so rapidly in the last few years that their tech support suffers. ... Tom
Smith Park School, MA
2000
- Wednesday, May 24, 2000 5:13:09 AM Subject: Re: Web based e-mail
... I can't imagine getting rid of FCCC. We are so happy with it. And, happy to
not have the latest virus attack problems. Any discussions with SoftArc about
your needs. ... Linda S. Lagomarsino, Technology Coordinator,
Wilbraham and Monson Academy, MA
2001
- Ed Siegfried writes "the best, clearest" exposition on First Class: Here's a
little different take on it: ...
Students at Milton, as elsewhere, are vitally interested in race, gender, and
identity. We find that the conferencing features of MiltONline (our FirstClass
system) are of tremendous value in supporting them in their struggles with these
issues. Each of our many student interest clubs and organizations operates its
own conference area, where discussion in too-brief meetings can be extended,
where ideas can be thrashed about, and where information can be sent out. Each
conference is open to all, operates under a charter defining its focus, and each
has 2 or 3 moderators, adult and student. We teach MiltONline moderators how to
manage productive discussion. ...
The advantages of FirstClass for this purpose are (a) that it is easy to use and
reachable from anywhere, (b) secure, meaning there is no anonymity, and (c)
controllable, meaning that conference moderators can keep conversations focused.
All three qualities are necessary. ... Multicultural discussion means lots of
discussion. It's very important to us. For this purpose alone a good
mail-and-conferencing system is worth the expense. You could say we are using
computers to fight racism. ... Ed Siegfried, Milton Academy MA
- Wednesday, October 31, 2001 7:07:58 PM ... Fred
Bartels ... Subject: Re: microsoft outlook versus first class ... I'll add a
vote for FirstClass.
We've been using it for 7 or 8 years at RCDS at it just keeps getting better. ...
Something that hasn't been mentioned is the web page feature of FC. The majority
of our faculty have web pages and take care of all the updating and changes to
those pages, on their own, via their FirstClass desktops. Our main web server
links to each faculty member's pages on the FirstClass server. ... Conferencing
is also great. I can create or delete conferences in minutes as need and/or
interest dictates. ... File transfer capabilities are also great. With the latest
version you can drag a folder (and all its contents) from the computer desktop to
the FirstClass desktop. This is an incredibly easy way to move files between home
and school. ...
Fred Bartels Director of Information Technology Rye Country Day School
- Wednesday, October 31, 2001 5:54:36 PM
From: wizards-l@thayer.org ... cbutler@shoreschool.org ... Subject: Re:
microsoft outlook versus first class
... Jill -
My $0.02: I agree with Tom, Geoff, and Ben.
FirstClass is user-friendly for clients and administrators. It has awesome
capabilities (central server for universal access, even with a web browser;
permission groups for access control; conferences for public & controlled access;
built-in web server) but at the same time is simple to manage and - in my
experience - almost bullet-proof. ... I have never taken any training classes and
have had no problem administering the server and dealing with a school full of
clients. (I've been using/administering FirstClass at three schools in the past
seven years.)
... Christopher Butler, Shore Country Day School MA
2002
- Friday, May 17, 2002 12:42:36 PM... From: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU ...
Juan Jewell wrote:
I really can't speak to the technical or administrative aspects of First Class,
but I absolutely detest it as an email client. My biggest complaint is that
there is no way for sent messages automatically to be saved to a folder. I also
wish it were possible to drag and drop groups of messages or folders to my local
computer. Others have commented on the lack of message filtering.
response
I agree, the "Client" portion is a bit lite on the features. ... I use Entourage
as an IMAP client to FirstClass Server which handles all of the mail filtering,
folder moving, etc. Using this combination of email client and FCIS server lets
me (almost) have my cake and eat it too. ... That's one of the better features of
FCIS, in my opinion. It allows you to use the proprietary FirstClass Client or
any POP3 or IMAP client of your choice. It also has a command line interface (for
the Unix and DOS junkies at your school) as well as a web interface. ... And
security of the FirstClass system is very good. Because it doesn't "integrate
seamlessly" with the Microsoft technologies it is also not subject to the many
viruses and exploits of those technologies. Yes, this means that it's not as
scriptable as many would like or doesn't integrate into Microsoft Word, but I'd
trade that any day for the security of knowing that opening a Word document with
a macro-virus isn't going to automatically spread itself through my e-mail
program. ... I've installed and configured Exchange Servers, GroupWise Servers,
and FirstClass Servers and I must say that FirstClass has been by far the easiest
to use. (Unless things at Novell have changed dramatically in the last year or
so, I wouldn't touch another GroupWise server) FirstClass also offers true
cross-platform compatibility with its e-mail client. ... I would suggest spending
some time evaluating your needs and then taking a closer look at FirstClass and
seeing if it will fulfill them. Be certain to consider all facets of an email
system, including accessibility, administration, security, and maintenance. You
should also compare some of the features FCIS offers that are above and beyond
most "e-mail" servers. It did start out as a BBS system and as such is well
suited for online collaboration.
... Corn Walker, digital baker |
- Friday, May 17, 2002 10:56:01 AM ...
geoff_greenberg@buacademy.org ... Subject: Re: First Class ...
We're a small school 150 students and 30 administrators & teachers. In some of my
previous work environments I have administered MS exchange (w/out outlook).
Comparatively, FC is so much simpler on administration. Here at BU Academy we are
running First Class 6 on Win2K. We have both Macs and PCs on the desktop. I am
pleasantly surprised with all of the features that FC has built in. Here are the
benefits that I can tell
- the TCO for FC is very low, as there is little
needed administration and support for end users - the first class client is not
particular susceptible to receiving and spreading viruses (like Outlook & Eudora)
- a fairly simple to administer system for calendaring, messaging, newsgroup, and
discussions - the server have the ability to write new server side applications
that can be deployed to the users FC desktop - centralized mail storage and
backup. - Database integration capabilities (Access, FMP, etc.) - pop, imap,
smtp, services for anyone who would prefer connecting in that method - built in
courseware - command Line access - web access - fairly high reliability on either
Mac or PC serving environment
Some of the draw backs include - the calendaring component is not as robust as it
could be (printing calendars and scheduling repeating tasks are a bit funky) -
the imap serving capabilities are not as robust as they could be - mass
e-mailings are slightly challenging (doing broadcast messaging, e-mail merges are
even more difficult) - users cannot set up filtering (outlook rules) on personal
messages. - global mailing lists cannot take the place of real list serves. - two
objects in first class cannot share the same name, making a strategic naming
scheme extremely important - FC does not integrate with Windows security, so dual
logons are required (although this has not yet posed a problem in our school.
Best,
Geoff Greenberg, Technology Coordinator ... Boston University Academy ... Boston,
Massachusetts 02215 ... http://www.buacademy.org
- Friday, May 17, 2002 10:17:05 AM ...
From: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU ... Peter_Gow@beavercds.org ...
Subject: Re: First Class ...
We are also dual platform (including W2K) and have no problems in this regard.
One can also load FirstClass onto a home computer (I've got Mac and PC at home
and do this with both) and easily configure it to connect (if you're broadband,
not modem) directly to the school server. We also make it possible to click
through (password protected, obviously) from the school website using a browser.
A colleague is about to connect his Sprint/Palm gadget directly. It's all very
easy to use and very stable--and slightly less of a mark for Outlook-directed
viruses.
... Peter Gow, Academic Dean ... Beaver Country Day School
Chestnut Hill, MA
- Friday, May 17, 2002 10:04:01 AM ...
From: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU ... Subject: Re: First Class ... We have
been running First Class for almost 6 years now. We were all Mac, then dual
platform, now we are all PC. FirstClass has hung in there through all of these
changes. We have it running on an NT machine now with no problems. Not sure
where you got the dual logon information, but that is not true (at least in our
environment). ...
Stewart Crais ... Director of Technology ... Lausanne Collegiate School ...
Memphis, TN 38120 ... www.lausanneschool.com
- Saturday, May 18, 2002 2:19:43 PM ... We have
also been extremely happy with First Class since 1994 or 95. In the last two
years we have been especially excited about the development possibilities of the
FirstClass Rapid Application Developer which comes free with the server. I am
not a great or really experienced programmer, yet I have fairly easily connected
FirstClass to several school databases thus putting the community directory as
well as students and faculty schedules online. In addition, I have created a
major assignments scheduler which allows teachers to catch assignment conflicts
and advisors to keep track of student crunch times (the system warns teachers
when they add a new assignment if any of their students already have several
major projects, tests or papers due on the same day). Lastly, I have been
working with the business office on an application in which hourly employees use
their FirstClass accounts to report their time cards and have them approved by
their supervisor. These projects were all done through FirstClass RAD and
custom made forms. ... The possibilities are endless not to mention the
FirstClass conferencing features which are great for academic courses and
community conversations/exchanges. The system started out as a bbs which has
made it much more than just email. My only real complaint is the calendaring is
not great, but apparently the next release will address some of the calendar
issues. ... Kirsten Hoyte, Concord Academy, MA
- Saturday, May 18, 2002 8:02:09 AM ... There is
only one statement in Ed's comment that I would like to disagree with and that is
his modest use of JMHO ("just my humble opinion"). We have been running a First
Class system at Nobles since December 7th, 1994 (Larry Bird's 38th birthday) and
I have been reading and collecting comments on First Class systems from tech
coordinators on various listservs for almost eight years. Almost 99% of the
schools and tech people involved in First Class-using schools are incredible fans
of the power, cross-platform and web flexibility, and KIS (keep it simple) nature
of the software. I am glad to share more info with anyone off the listserv as
well as offer you a temporary "visitor account" on our first class system called
NoblesNet which I honestly believe is one of the "most active and most
academically well used" First Class systems in America! ... Steve Bergen,
Computer Coordinator (bergen@nobles.edu) Noble and Greenough School, 10 Campus
Drive, Dedham MA 02026
-
Saturday, July 13, 2002 8:45:38 PM
Subject: Re: FirstClass
I'd be glad to answer any FirstClass questions that I can. It's a very good
product with distinctly imperfect support. The manuals are often not helpful, and
I feel, even after administering a FC system for 7 years, that they're talking
over my head, assuming that everyone is as profoundly involved with FC as they
are. And the frequent smart-ass tone of their messages and some documents is
unprofessional. ...
But nothing beats the solid conferencing features, the control of user privileges
by individual and group, and the fundamental efficiency and robustness of the
system. ... The manuals are reasonably good about explaining the privilege
features. Make sure you know how the privilege groups interact -- some override
others, so what does the user actually end up with? Plan your groups and
conferences with some serious thought. Give the main conferences interesting
names. Be responsive when your users seem to need a new conference -- make one
for them. Conferences are much better than mail lists, but the former depend on
the admin creating conferences when the time comes. (You can delegate the
conference-creating privilege, but I don't recommend it.) Do get into the
FirstClass Online (or whatever it's called now) BBS. You'll wish it were better,
but it's worth using -- now and then you learn something really useful.
Bob Clingman, Computer Department Chair
Shorecrest Preparatory School
5101 First St. NE, Saint Petersburg, FL 33703
Why First Class? 
