Blog 4

Does the educational system that you are affiliated with offer a shared storage area on the network for students or faculty?------Do you find this beneficial?

Since I am a full time graduate student, I am not affiliated with any school system besides Wilkes University. As many of you know, Wilkes offers shared storage in several capacities. Moodle and WebCT are both a form of shared storage. Instructors can post information that the students can access. The students may not have access to store files on the networks directly, but turning a project or homework in will store the file on the network on behalf of the instructor.

A more traditional method of shared storage is what is commonly known as the H drive system. All students have access to this method of storage while on campus. The whole Wilkes network is connected, so while on Wilkes's network all the student (or instructor) needs to do is save the information onto his/her H drive. Retrieving the information from a different computer is a bit more difficult and to be honest I haven't done it in several years.

What type of Email System does your educational system implement? Do you use this mail system at school?.......from home? Explain.....

Wilkes University uses one primary email system, another one located on WebCT, and I know of a third that is private to the Math/CS department. The primary email system is powered by Microsoft Outlook Web Access which is a web based system. Being a web based system, I can access it from anywhere I have an internet connection and an internet browser. I primarily check my email several times a week from a variety of places. Although there is a size limitation on the attachments, I personally prefer a web based system for the convenience of access.

Overall, from this chapter, the most important thing that I learned is.....

The most interesting thing I learned in this chapter, was the difference between IMAP and POP protocols. I do not recall ever hearing about POP and only recognize the term IMAP in passing. A POP set up will remove the file from the server once it is loaded onto a local machine. I believe it is safe to assume that POP is only used with client based systems. (Although this is a bit misleading, never assume that anything is deleted on the internet. Once out there, it is always out there.) IMAP is more affiliated with web based mail servers. The file is saved on the server and be accessed as many times as necessary until the user deletes it.