Computers and Internet Books

"Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom: The realities of Online teaching" is a great book for someone who is interested in the possibilities of online education and teaching. Palloff and Pratt offer a lot of great tips and ideas that are very concise and easy to understand. They provide commonsense guidelines in conducting online teaching in a way that is simple to digest, entertaining, and useful to teachers, administrators, or whoever else is interested in the realm of online teaching and education.

I personally liked the way the authors really tried the simplify their views on how to make a successful online teaching experience. Their "Keys to Success" seemed to be very helpful and realistic for many institutions to implement with careful planning.

Another especially helpful idea throughout the book was their tips at the end of some sections. By providing these simple tips it helps readers summarize the section and allows readers to easily review the material after they have read though the book once or twice.

I feel that this book is a "must-have" for people who have some interest in this relatively new and every changing field of online teaching.

Growing numbers of K-12 schools, colleges, universities, and businesses have begun offering online instruction, taking advantage of computer and Internet technologies to deliver instruction once confined to the realm of physical classrooms. Indeed, the Internet, so-to-speak, has become a virtual classroom and community where all kinds of instruction can take place - anytime day or night, anywhere around the world.

Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom offers readers a broad treatment of the issues involved in planning, creating, and carrying out distance education via the Internet. In a concise manner the book introduces the issues, raises many serious questions, and provides many solutions to help meet the educational goals of instructors, their learning institutions, and their students.

The real beauty of the book lies in its effort to motivate instructors and learning institutions to think through the issues for themselves - to evaluate the unique circumstances they face and to encourage them to seek more effective ways of accomplishing their goals. Because each virtual learning experience will be unique, a number of important considerations should be weighed to determine course structure, content, and delivery, such as:

What technologies should be used?
Who will create the course?
Who will own the course material(s)?
How will the course be delivered?
How will assignments, projects, and exams be administered?
How will instructors and students be prepared?
How will student participation be controlled?
How will student behavior be controlled?

Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom does a superb job of fostering community among educators and their students. The authors express the importance of creating learning communities were serious dialogue takes place - dialogue that enhances the learning process and leads to achieving specific educational goals. This book is must reading for online educational course development.

If "the devil is in the details" of online learning, Paloff and Pratt have done an excellent job exploring the promise and pitfalls of distance learning programs. Anyone in the process of designing online courses or programs in higher education should read both this book and their earlier book before they launch a new course or program. Personally, this book helped me avoid several mistakes I otherwise would have made in my first distance learning adventure.

The book looks at both teacher and administrator perpsectives, and understands that both insitutional support and instructor skill are key elements for success. While the authors are genuine advocates for the medium, they understand that interactivity does not equal mouse clicks, and that building learning communities takes skill, practice, and structures. The book is full of very helpful examples, learning constructs, and realistic assessments of distance learning successes and failures.

Anyone who works in the Library and Information field need to get this book. This resource will save you alot of mental and financial problems as well as stress. The author does not make the assumption that the reader knows the subject area. This resource is written so that a layperson can understand it. After every chapter there are references that one can peruse if he/she so desires. The appendix is wonderful. The table of contents is methodical and logical. It is a great reference resource and a good read!!

While the book has 9 plus chapters, the fifth chapter makes a sense, as it is a detailed section on motivations that are not-secular, non-business, and non-academic areas.

The chapters of the book are:
1 Questions and Answers about the First Amendment: Sex, Lies, and Cyberspace 1
2 Basic First Amendment Principles and Their Application to Libraries 25
3 The Sexual Conundrum 45
4 The Right to Offend 62
5 Religious Motivations and Library Use 72
6 Just between You and Your Librarian--Library Confidentiality Laws 84
7 Workplace Issues: Employee Free Speech and Harassment 92
8 Children, Schools, and the First Amendment 105
9 Cyberspace--The Last Frontier 125
Appendixes
A The Library Bill of Rights and Its Interpretations 147
B Guidelines for the Development and Implementation of Policies, Regulations and Procedures Affecting Access to Library Materials, Services and Facilities 176
C Guidelines and Considerations for Developing a Public Library Internet Use Policy 180
D Dealing with Concerns about Library Resources 188
E Conducting a Challenge Hearing 191
F Policy on Confidentiality of Library Records 196
G Policy concerning Confidentiality of Personally Identifiable Information about Library Users 198
Glossary 201
Index

Worth a new edition.

The First Amendment is an integral philosophical and political concept embedded in academic and community library system operations. The First Amendment And Cyberspace answers the questions librarians and library patrons most often have about the First Amendment and library services. Included the issues of basic First Amendment principles and their application to libraries, the right to offend, religious motivations and library use, library confidentiality laws, cyberspace and the First Amendment. A special chapter focuses on children, schools and the First Amendment. Essential reading for library students, librarians, library administrators, and library board members, Robert Peck's The First Amendment And Cyberspace is enhanced with appendices on American Library Association policies and recommendations including Conducting a Challenge Hearing; Guidelines and Considerations for Developing a Public Library Internet Use Policy; and Policy on Confidentiality of Library Records.

I have read a number of books about Dreamweaver 8 and while almost all of them state that Dreamweaver 8 can make dynamic web pages most don't go into much detail on these somewhat complex subjects. Dreamweaver 8 Recipes, on the other hand, focuses primarily on these aspects taking out the mysticism and complexity that other books seem to perpetuate.

Each chapter explores one particular dynamic program aspect or recipe. These entries include step by step instructions (including coding) as well as how to properly connect each action using Asp VBScript, ASP JavaScript, ColdFusion, or PHP as applicable. This book comes complete with a CD that includes practical exercises for each recipe.

Dynamic pages really aren't that difficult if you have the right instruction.

I think this is a very helpful book, would purchase again. Very user friendly for either beginners or advanced.

I am a professional Website developer, and have been using Dreamweaver since its inception, and using PHP as long as I can remember. I chanced on this book, Dreamweaver 8 Recipes, via [...], and decided to add it to my library. Well, I have learned more from this book, regarding BOTH Dreamweaver and PHP, than from all the ten or so books on my shelf on the same topics. Joseph Lowry and Eric Ott have a unique teaching method that is just perfect for my particular learning process. The code they present is always accompanied by an explanation as to 'why' and 'what if' and 'be sure to'. Their comments are invaluable and I just can't say how much this book has improved my skills. The book includes ASP, VB, JS, CF as well as PHP. Just great!

What more do you want from a book? With my daughter getting ready to go to college, I flipped immediately to the section on "Smart Bucks: Planning for College Online." There, the author laid out the whole process for me in detail and pointed out where I needed to go to on the web. Even though we don't qualify for financial aid, I found a student loan and a small grant! Next, I plan to tackle investments with the help of this practical guide. This book is not just a collection of websites, as naysayers have complained. It shows you the financial reasoning behind your web searches, something no search engine will ever do. Thank you, Ms. Sindell. Enthusiastically recommended.

"Managing Your Money Online for Dummies" is an excellent book because it covers all the online money management topics that aren't taught in school. I discovered many no cost (or low cost) online financial tools and resources to give myself an online financial makeover that's saving me lots of $$$ each month. Additionally, I now have a good idea of how the Internet can help me make my money work hard than ever before.

I really liked the way this book is organized. The format made it easy to go back and reference important points.

'Managing Your Money Online For Dummies' is ideal for all Internet users who want to maximize their personal wealth by making each and every dollar count. Get expert advice on how to make routine financial tasks more convenient. Save time by taking advantage of the 24 / 7 convenience of online banking, bill paying, calculators and worksheets. Develop more knowledge by becoming skilled at using the Net for improved budgeting, financial planning and protecting your assets. Discover how you can use the Internet to plan for expected and unexpected life events (for example, buying the home of your dreams, planning for your comfortable retirement and college). Find out how you can save money by using online comparison resources and tools for large purchases. Avoid frauds by understanding how to protect your personal financial information. Discover how you can recognize potential online swindles, shams, and deceptions. To sum it up, 'Managing Your Money Online For Dummies' shows you how to get more from what you already have and how to reach your financial goals without penny pinching or giving up luxuries.

Cooking Basics from the Maran family is a superbly illustrated introductory "how to" guide for creating easy, quick, and tasty foods. Presenting essential food preparation and cooking techniques with helpful, step-by-step full-color photographs, Cooking Basics explores how to create delicious and easy-to-prepare recipes (all with ten ingredients or less), along with information on all the appliances and cooking equipment necessary, as well as expert advice for purchasing and organizing the ingredients for each featured recipe. Cooking Basics is very highly recommended, especially for all new and novice cooks for its exceptionally helpful , "user friendly" presentation and diversity.

Cooking Basics is an excellent book that teaches basic cooking skills to novice cooks.

Maran Illustrated publishes how-to books to help teach readers new skills. Cooking Basics is their latest addition.

Each step is excellently photographed to help demonstrate the skill that is being taught. There are several recipes included, each are rich in flavor, has its nutrition facts listed, as well as each stage of the recipe photographed.

The chapters included in this book: Kitchen Essentials; Going to the Grocery Store; Food Preparation Techniques; Preparing Specific Foods; Cooking Techniques; Savory Starters; Salads & Sides; Eggs, Noodles, Legumes & Grains; Beef & Pork Dishes; Chicken Dishes; Fish & Seafood; Baked Goodies; and Reference & Measurements.

Some of the tasty recipes you will find in this book are: Cranberry Glazed Pork Tenderloin, Cheesecake Squares, Pan-Fried Tilapia and Pan-Roasted Vegetables with Bulgur.

An excellent book for the new cook, pick up a copy of this book today.

I was searching for a basic cooking book for a young friend of the family. I wanted something special, not the usual "cooking for dummys" type of book, or a book of basic recipies. I wanted something that would explain a wide range of cooking info, and that could also be used as a reference for years to come. I was also looking for something that was affordable. I came across this book in a local book store, after paging through many, many others. I was extremely impressed at the wide range of info packed in this book. I've been cooking for 30+ years, and this book even taught me a thing or two as I paged through it! The first half covers basic utensils, measuring, cutting, chopping, types of spices, fruits, vegies, and cuts of different meats. It explains the different methods of preparing foods (frying, braizing, boiling, poaching, blanching, steaming, searing, reducing, etc.), as well as different ways to work with certain foods, such as eggs. The second half is recipies. They are simple, healthy recipes, that range from salad to dessert, each explained step by step and illustrated nicely. I was impressed by the choice of recipes included, as a new cook could easily prepare a very impressive meal quite easily. Even an experienced cook will find the recipies to be very useful. Overall it's well written, well illustrated, and very informative book for the beginning cook, as well as a handy reference for the more experienced. It's also reasonably priced! I purchased it as a gift for the young family friend, and I plan to purchase another to add to my own cook book collection. You can't go wrong with this book if your looking for a GOOD basic book about the fundamentals of cooking.

The Maran Illustrated series for computers is excellent. Perfect for those who need to SEE exactly what is being described. Clear captures of the computer screen with directives. Worth it's weight in gold.

I teach small classes for Nebraska Workforce Development clients - usually from 1 to 4 students - and I have used this book for 2 years now. You should see the delight on their faces when they begin to learn Office skills and do real projects! Many of them go on to learn more and get good jobs... but they just needed a user friendly way to get started.

Thanks to Maran Graphics!

I love the "Maran series" books. They are very helpful for people who are not a computer genius, since they show instructions step by step.

great book for my elderly father. he was able to follow along in it quite easily & stopped asking me so many questions. lol

With over 90 million users of ICQ worldwide, this book will easily be the best seller in computer book history, it's a MUST have for every ICQ experienced user or even newbie user of ICQ. This author has again brought us the most complete knowledge users need today! Talk to your friends, make new friends, look up old friends, effective in daily business or using ICQ to just relax. If you have the program, buy the book today, perfect companion, the two goes hand in hand together. I'm surprised the word ICQ hasn't been added to Websters. This clearly is the best resource I've seen for ICQ. I strongly encourage every ICQ user to pick this up.

In just over two years ICQ (I Seek You) rocketed from a messaging software with just over a million registered users to a full-blown communication suite with over 50 million registered users. The power of the program now goes far beyond simple (largely self-explanatory) chat features and a user guide has become essential for anyone wanting to use its full power.

The features covered in 'Mastering ICQ : The Official Guide', include ICQ mail, free homepages, streaming radio, voice communication, and plug-ins that expand the capabilities of the program. You will learn how to find people you know via ICQ, make yourself invisible while on ICQ, and send voice, graphics, and text files via ICQ. Also how to protect yourself from ICQ hackers, use ICQ as a personal assistant, and connect your phone to ICQ.

This excellent book uncovers and teaches dozens of uses for the program that you may not have discovered on your own. The new power of ICQ ensures that IRC (Internet Relay Chat ) will remain the Wild West of real-time online conversation, and learning to use ICQ's new power requires a clear, concise guide such as this. The topics are covered in easy-to-approach order and Peter Weverka, the author, has drawn heavily on modern teaching methods (Tell them what you're going to tell them --- Tell them --- Tell them what you told them). It might sound simplistic, but it works.

I highly recommend 'Mastering ICQ : The Official Guide' to anyone who wants to make use of this free internet software. (For more details, simply type icq.com into your search bar, and you'll be taken straight to the site).

Well written and in depth, this book should cover everything necessary to pass these tests.

I have two complaints:

1) The book is laid out functionally for SQL Server, not for each test. So, for example, when you are studying for the 70-442, it may involve a portion of chapter 3, 4, 5, and 8, but all of 12 and 13. All this information is entwined with the stuff for the other tests.

2) You choose to only take one of the tests on the CD. For example - you couldn't say just test for the 70-441 test. I found the CD questions less useful than books dedicated to one test because of this.

These are minor complaints though, and I'm not really sure the issues can be avoided to begin with. Don't let them stop you from using this as your resource to pass these three tests.

The end-of-chapter exam questions were perfect for helping me know what I know and what I don't know. I already passed the 70-431 and 70-441 exams and the questions I looked at in the back of the chapters hit the knowledge needed to pass these exams.

Unfortunately I failed the 70-442 exam before this book was released. However, after reviewing the end-of-chapter exam questions, I saw exactly what I needed to brush up on. I spent several days in a marathon study session doing the exam questions in the back of each chapter for the 70-442. For anything I missed, I studied the material in the chapter. In addition to learning what I needed for the exam, I also learned a couple things I didn't know about in SQL Server 2005. I then took and passed the 70-442.

This book was just what I needed. I only wish I had it before I took the 70-442 the first time.

For the 431 exam, I used the (Tom) Carpenter book as my primary study guide and this book as a side reference. My main reason for purchasing this book is for the next two exams (441,442). After taking the 431 test and looking up some questions I guessed at in this book, I regret not using this book as my primary study guide. This book seems to point out the exact information needed to get through the test. I look forward to using it for the next two exams. Note that the author of this book is the technical editor for the Carpenter book.

Update to previous review:
I just passed both exams (441 & 442) without difficulty and with plenty of time remaining (each exam took about 2 hours). This is definitely the book to use for these exams. The topics and sample questions are on target with the actual test. Be sure to review the topic list for each exam in the front of the book before taking the test. The 'what you need to know' section at the end of each chapter is not always accurate. Also - the explanation of cascade deletes is incorrect in the book.

GIS, intelligent digital geographic information systems - are turning geography into a business science, and Measuring Up: The Business Case for GISprovides case studies about companies and government agencies which have implemented GIS solutions in their business goals and plans. Chapters show how to save money and time using GIS-based systems, how to use GIS to generate revenue and help budgets, and how to manage the resources and information bases resulting from GIS systems. The inclusion of over seventy articles from over twenty business sectors span the globe in experience and setting, creating a very specific, detailed set of insights on new GIS-driven business processes. Highly recommended.

I picked up this book at an ESRI User Group meeting. I had seen it advertised and asked the local ESRI rep about it. He gave me the book!

It is an excellent resource. It cites specific studies of GIS use to illustrate how GIS can pay for itself several times over. There are plenty of examples to cover a broad spectrum of GIS uses. There are several government examples, as well as some less known uses.

There is also a slide show / outline based on the book that can be downloaded from the ESRI website.

This is an outstanding resource for increasing the return on your GIS investment as well as to get new comers up to speed in understanding the benefits to GIS. As a GIS veteran who has trained new users as well as managers new to GIS in the public, private and non-profit sectors, this is the best book that I have come across to expose them to the importance of GIS and how it has specifically reduced costs, streamlined and improved service as well as perform analysis not feasible in the past. I gave five books to a world class City Planning, Info Tech, Neighborhood Services & Law Enforcement department managers (and kept one for me).

What I specifically enjoyed is that this is a "non-technical" book that focuses on several real world examples of how GIS technology has been used by real people, in the real world, in modern times and budgets and how they benefited as well as how much "$" it saved them. Full of color images and very easy to read. By seeing case studies of what others have done, I am now implementing some of the same uses. So even a GIS dinosaur like myself has been able to steal some wonderful ideas that make my bosses look great. Making them happy keeps me happy. A lifesaver for the new GIS person (especially management) and a resource for the GIS Veteran. Well done & highly recommended.

Groove

What is it?
A Tool Box for Project Managers or Information Managers
How does it do it??
Groove is set up with 10 to 15 tools that will assist in the process of infomation transfer. Each tool is explained to the "T", about not only how, but when & where the tool should be used.
Features glore.
The tools in MSGroove provide methods to track your meeting schedules, Meeteing Decisions, Meeting Notes and share the Project folders (Files), pictures, track issues, Alerts, project calendars, Integration of InfoPath forms, instant messages and the list goes on and on.
One important aspect is that the engineers realized you may need to use a specific tool over and over. Example is the calendar tool. You can create numerous calendars, for example, one calendar for each of your sub-contarctors, entering all the dates of expected work or information, then you can combine all the calendars into one complete calendar or combine any number of calendars together, somewhat like an overlay system adding one at a time to see if problems exist. Very Cool.
One small problem is that the sketch pad for doing your drawings needs to have an eraser for sketch errors
Groove can be a very powerful tool for any project PM or information manager. Combining this Program with "MS PROJECT" on the larger project side, provides complete project shareware anywhere.
Finally a ((secured workspace)) to share important information with your partners & Employees in business. Not only can you share information, you can also allocate responsibilities and see the follow up, through the use of the Alert system. This program works on a server or on any stand alone PC to PC. If your looking for better ways to control project information, this is your baby and Rick, John & Berry will take you through the information Step by Step.
My hat is off to the engineers of MS Groove.
Great Job Bill>"M"

Groove has been around for about 7 years now and since it was bought by Microsoft in 2004 has enjoyed increasing popularity and usage. What was always missing was a resource that allowed "Joe/Jane user" to really understand how to get the best out of this intriguing application.

Well, now you can quickly and easily make your self an expert or just a very competant user; thanks to this book. I have used Groove for a while and found some of the concepts a bit difficult to grasp. Groove is different and having an expert guide like this has helped me to open up a whole new world of possibilities and opportunites to use the tool to it's full extent.

If you have Groove (or are thinking aboout it) this is a MUST have!

A great book for the beginner to more advanced "Groover". The screen shots are very helpful as is the commentary. The book is easy to read and follow. A must buy!