1. The discussion re textbooks hits home an important difference between grad students -- let's look critically at multiple points of view and different pieces of evidence -- and undergrads -- tell us what the right answer is. 2. Having said that, I find that my third-year students ("juniors" and "seniors' to the 'Mericans) are happy with a set of article readings (online), as long as (a) there ain't too many (3/week seems ok) and (b) my ppt lectures serve as the integrating "textbook". 3. Looking back to 1962, I had a similar experience when I entered my senior year at Lafayette, a good undergrad US college. It was only in the honors history seminar that I received pre-grad school training about not looking for "the right answer" but evaluating different points of view and evidence. So everything old may be new again. 4. I AM intrigued by the list members who say students are less excited and knowledgeable about the Internet. OT1H, my course enrollment was up this year (but that may be because folks had a schedule opening). OTOH, students were generally less excited and less knowledgeable. I hadn't thought about it before, but my hunch is that the list members were right in saying the Internet has become blase -- reminds me of when I couldn't talk about the telephone as being important in the 1970s-1980s when it hugely was. (And perhaps still is.) 5. Anyway, I know of 3 nice books in our area that are coming along: a. Paul Levinson b. Nancy Baym (she's been tweeting about it) c. Lee Rainie & me. Ad astra! Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________