Tools for Information Literacy Syllabus
Readings
All of our reading materials will be available online,
either in our Canvas site
or from links within our class website.
There may be readings for each session, but they are not readings for memorization.
Lectures will not necessarily follow the readings, and they might not even touch on all of the content in the readings.
The purpose of the readings is to provide you a context within which to experience the lectures and exercises that follow.
You will want to do the readings to have a framework within which to work.
Session notes
These will include links to a variety of additional resources, to more fully explain or expand on topics discussed
in the notes. Some of the linked sources may include:
-
online documentation from UNC's Information Technology Services
(especially the help link),
- other information sources available via the Web,
- or readings that will be sent to you as email attachments or as blog posts.
Pay attention to the schedule
and to the Canvas site.
If there is something that you should read prior to class, it will be included on the
session notes for the session prior to the class you will be preparing for.
You would do well to look over the linked readings prior to coming to class.
Class tools
Mac users
As was formerly stated by the IT staff at SILS:
Windows is the current standard as a platform,
but alternatives, such as Macs, are widely used and accepted on campus.
We encourage you to choose the operating system with which you are most comfortable.
Accordingly, the instructor will generally use computer using the Window OS (Operating System) during lectures.
On occasion, the interface in Windows will not match the interface in a Mac.
While we will try to have examples for all operating systems, it will be useful if, when you find that the Mac view is different,
that you take a screenshot of the Mac environment and send it to the instructor.
The instructor will ensure that the Mac screenshot is integrated into the class pages pertaining to the situation in which the screenshot was taken.
Macs will work easily for everything we will do in INLS161,
though during your student career you may find a need to be able to use a Windows application on a Mac.
You may wish to look into using Bootcamp
to install both Windows and IOS on your Mac for those situations.
Again from a former statment by the IT staff at SILS:
Mac users can install Windows virtualization software
(such as
Virtual Box,
Bootcamp,
Parallels
or VMWare)
in order to run Windows-only programs on their computers.
Using virtualization software, students can install a Windows operating system on their Mac and then install the necessary Windows applications.
It is expected that students will have virtualization software installed before it is needed in classes.
Please note that the process of installing virtualization software and applications can take several hours.
You do, however, have other options if you need special software in classes beyond INLS161
Remote desktop assistance
The best alternative is UNC Research Computing Virtual Computing Lab, which advertises
The Virtual Computing Lab (VCL) provides access to remote Linux/Windows computational resources. Research and learning analytics environments are provisioned as a virtual machine (VM),
or an Operating System (OS) running directly on a remote physical computer which is called a "bare metal" option in VCL terminology ...
There is a wide variety of hardware available within VCL for VMs and bare metal OS provisioned environments. VCL has a few newer computers available,
and it includes many older systems that are enjoying their retirement from servicing more production oriented systems.
Access to VL is available 24/7 and open to all Carolina faculty, staff, and students who have a UNC-Chapel Hill Onyen.