I suspect for new media-related courses the most important tech- related stuff to teach to all of them would be in the area of "un- learning" rather than learning. Unlearning the exaggerated assumptions many students may have about the levels of tech competence and use in the general population (using qualitative/ ethnographic studies of Internet use) on the one hand and unlearning their assumptions about the way the Internet and key services work on the other (eg a primer on how search engines deliver results deconstructing the commercial and technical decisions underlying them which would be helpful for their own web searching as well as for user understanding). P.S. References to using UNIX for anything research-related made me smile ruefully. I wasn't surprised by Ezter's remarks on this. Since we at the LSE don't have a Comp Sci department (Information Systems is social science-y not primarily tech) there's very little support for UNIX here except for an "Advanced Research Computer". Even Macs are distinctly second class citizens: "Apple Mac and Unix computers, and other machines running non School standard operating systems, are not supported other than provision of assistance on how to connect to the School’s network." (In practice, fortunately I have found several helpful IT people at the LSE who have informally aided me in connecting my Mac). There's probably plenty of UNIX around behind the scenes but nothing the ordinary student would run across. I too wonder for how much longer undergrads at universities will be exposed to it. --- David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm> Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/ (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog) Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ dealingwithemail/> callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)