The Computers, 6th edition
Teaching-Learning System

Computers, 6th edition, continues the Long and Long tradition of having the most comprehensive, innovative, and effective support package on the market. The teaching-learning system includes the following components.

Long and Long INTERNET BRIDGE

The Long and Long INTERNET BRIDGE is designed to help students, studying via Long and Long resources, make the transition between textbook learning and real-world understanding. To use this resource, the student connects to the Internet, navigates to the INTERNET BRIDGE, and clicks on the Computers, 6th edition image. The site offers a variety of activities and services, including these main components:

Internet Exercises

The Internet Exercises encourage students to more fully explore computer competency topics while familiarizing themselves with the Internet. The student selects a specific chapter to begin an on-line adventure that will travel around and into the exciting world of computing. The student’s journey will include many stops that will increase understanding and appreciation of the technologies that change and embellish our lives.

Each chapter has up to seven topics (for example, printers, telecommuting, multimedia, artificial intelligence, and so on), at least one of which is Serendipitous Surfing (for example, movies, sports, popular culture, and so on). Each topic has from three to seven Internet Exercises. For each exercise, the student: 1) reads the exercise; 2) navigates to the applicable Internet site(s); 3) notes the source, title, and URL(s); 4) finds the requested information; and 5) returns to the topic page and enters the requested information in the response box. When all Internet exercises are completed for a given topic, the student clicks the "Submit Answers" button to e-mail the responses to the instructor/grader.

On-line Interactive Study Guide

The Internet-based Interactive Study Guide (ISG) helps the student learn and retain concepts presented in the text. A drop-down box on the ISG page lets the student navigate directly to the desired chapter. The student can view the chapter learning objectives and then choose from four skills quizzes: multiple choice, true/false, essay, or matching exam. These quizzes are designed to give students the opportunity to sharpen their problem-solving skills and assess their grasp of concepts.

• Multiple Choice. When taking the multiple-choice quiz, the student simply clicks the radio button to select the correct response for each question. After answering all of the questions, the student submits the answers for automatic grading. A summary report is returned to the student within seconds. The summary report includes the percentage correct, the number of incorrect answers, and the number of unanswered questions. The report also includes a question-by-question summary with an explanation, the student’s response, and the correct response (if needed).
• True/False. The true/false interface and summary report matches that of the multiple choice quiz.
• Essay Exam. The essay exam includes a text response box for each question into which the student keys in the answer.
• Matching. The matching section is grouped to present a series of terms in one column, and a series of definitions in another column.

Most questions have hints or provide a reference to the applicable section in the text. After completing a quiz, the student has the option of routing the answers to his/her e-mail address, to his/her instructor, or both. The summary report is sent for multiple choice, true/false and matching quizzes, and the questions and answers are sent for the essay exams.

Monthly Technology Update

Each month the authors compile a summary of important changes and happenings in the world of computing. These summaries, which are keyed to chapters, are intended to help keep the student’s learning experience current with a rampaging technology.

Edu.cis is Prentice Hall's Internet site supporting on-line computer competency courses. The site supports this book and its companion lab book, Office Professional 97 by Grauer and Barber. Edu.cis offers you and your colleagues all the advantages of a custom-built program, but without the hassle. If you are considering offering all or part of your course via distance learning, then edu.cis can help you create and implement a high-quality course with relative ease. If you already offer an online course, then edu.cis can assist you in formalizing your course. Edu.cis gives you the flexibility to integrate your custom material with the continuously updated Long and Long content. The edu.cis is packaged within the WebCT course authoring tool, so you can customize the content to meet the most demanding curriculum requirements. Whether you are off and running or this is your first on-line course, edu.cis can save you countless hours of preparation and course administration time.

Edu.cis includes these and many other features in each of its 28 learning modules: an introduction, objectives, summaries of key concepts, on-line activities that use the Internet and Office 97, off-line activities that integrate the texts with web content, self-check exercises, on-line quizzes (auto-scored and recorded), test item database and test preparation tools (auto-scored and recorded), e-mail accounts for students and instructors, and a bulletin board primed with interesting discussion topics. A wizard program guides you through the initial stages of course development, including the creation of a password-protected course home page. The Course Management feature automatically grades on-line tests and records scores in your electronic grade book. The Progress Tracking feature lets you monitor individual and overall student progress. The Content Tracking feature tells you how often and how long each and every student visits an edu.cis page. The WebCT shell also lets you integrate files without using HTML.

The most recent version sports four modules, each of which contains the following main menu options: Exploration (teaches important concepts and applications); Challenge (tests the student’s knowledge of the subject); Review (multiple choice and true/false questions); Video (video vignettes); and Glossary. Cross-references to the following multimedia Explorations and Challenges are included in the margins throughout the book:

• Computer Explorer. This explorer examines the system unit, inside and out (front and rear). The student simply clicks on a component to learn more about it.
• Peripheral Explorer. This Peripheral Explorer activity introduces the student to common input/output devices, storage devices, and storage media that might be configured with a PC.
• On-line Explorer. This explorer simulates going on-line. The student can "log on" and learn to navigate the Internet, America Online, and a BBS.
• PC Applications. This explorer provides a one-stop overview of the functionality of a variety of common PC applications.

IT Works, like the technology, is dynamic--ever changing and growing. As your and your students’ needs change, so will IT Works.

The Instructor’s Resource CD-ROM is a comprehensive tool that integrates the entire supplements package. These include the Instructor’s Resource Manual, Test Item File, Windows PH Custom Test, Transparencies, PowerPoint Slides, Computer Chronicles Video Library, and the multimedia presentation tool, Presentation Manager. Presentation Manager is a user-friendly PC-compatible presentation program that enables you to integrate Prentice Hall-supplied resources with your own resources, all within Microsoft PowerPoint to create vibrant multimedia lectures. The Computers Presentation Manager contains hundreds of images that can be organized to meet your presentation needs, including all of the figures in the text, over a hundred photo images from the book and elsewhere, plus a pre-created set of PowerPoint Presentations. All of these resources are organized by chapter for your convenience. When putting together the resources for a particular lecture, simply use the key word search and preview feature to find exactly what you need. You can also integrate images of your own, and you can include (or modify) notes for each image.

Windows PH Custom Test is an integrated PC-compatible test-generation and classroom-management software package. The package permits instructors to design and create tests, to maintain student records, and to provide on-line practice testing for students.

The Test Item File contains thousands of multiple choice, true/false, essay, and matching questions. The questions are listed by numbered section head. The Test Item File diskettes are distributed for use with PH Custom Test software.

The IRM contains teaching hints, references to other resources, PowerPoint and acetate images, lecture notes, key terms with definitions, solutions to review exercises, and much more.

Approximately one hundred color transparency acetates, which support material in the text, are provided to facilitate in-class explanation.

Several hundred colorful and illustrative PowerPoint slides are available on the web site and in Presentation Manager for use with Microsoft PowerPoint. The PowerPoint slides can help bring both smiles and understanding to any multimedia presentation.

Prentice Hall and Computer Chronicles have joined forces to provide you with a video library that offers a variety of documentary and feature-style stories on computers and applications of information technology.

Author Link

If you have questions about the text, its package, or course planning, call the authors (see the IRM for number) or contact them via Feedback on the INTERNET BRIDGE authors’ page.