Bootstrapping microcomputers at Drexel University: The role of a faculty newsletter

Abstract

Drexel University requires entering freshmen to have access to a personal microcomputer. Part of the faculty development effort was a faculty newsletter, boot. The newsletter published information about microcomputers and their applications and about microcomputer-related events on campus. Unlike newsletters produced by academic computing centers, boot was edited by faculty, most of its pieces were written by faculty, and it was addressed to all members of the university community, not just that subgroup with a prior interest in, or prior record of, computer use. This article describes the publication and presents data indicating that the faculty found it to be clearly worthwhile. © 1986 Psychonomic Society, Inc.