GTA Technology Training

Introduction

This tutorial is meant to introduce only the basic computer skills required to manage a class at Penn State. Much more would be needed to introduce every aspect of the computer system.

This tutorial is meant to be self-guided and self-paced. If you have any questions during the time allotted for this tutorial, please ask the instructor. If you have questions later, you should send an email to either mummert at math.psu.edu or help at math.psu.edu for general questions. Questions about the TeX and LaTeX languages should be sent to tex at math.psu.edu.

The author of this tutorial is Carl Mummert. Questions or comments directly relating to this tutorial should be sent to me at mummert at math.psu.edu. In this tutorial, recommendations made in first person reflect opinions of the author, not policies of the Math Department.

Objectives

The goal of the GTA Technology Training is to give the participants a functional understanding of:

1. The email systems relevant to the Math Department
2. The elion system
3. Recording student grades electronically
4. Setting secure file permissions
5. Running TeX, LaTeX, and associated commands
6. Technology classrooms at PSU

Getting Started

To begin this tutorial, you need to have a command prompt available. When you log onto a MathNet machine, a command prompt will open automatically.

You can open additional command prompts. To do this under OpenWindows, right+click on the background, select "Apps" then select "Command Tool". The command prompt is used to run various UNIX commands including LaTeX, spreadsheets, word processors, and Netscape.

To run a command, type the command name, followed by any additional options (these vary from program to program), then press return.

Try this: Run the command hostname at the prompt. The hostname program will print the name of the computer you are working on. You will get back a prompt (%) where you can type another command.

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