The Question of a Stranger
  Elizabeth Haller

The path to solitude at Charlie's Corner Bar. Along the way, I pass the party store where I'll find the beer and cigarettes I've been instructed to purchase. It can wait. As I approach the bar, blaring neon beer slogans light up the darkened windows. A couple leaves the bar, and through the open door seeps the sound of laughter meant to impress.

As I walk into the bar I see the laughter stems from the mass of hairy chests, tight dresses and bleached hair surrounding the jukebox in the corner. I make my way to a seat at the end of the bar and raise my hand slightly to get Charlie's attention.

"What'll it be tonight, Annie?"    full text

Editors' Note:
  Phil Brocato

Fukuda's Chalkboard

Essay:
Rick Lynn

The virtual reality of the internet poses a challenge to sociology. We, sociologist are faced with a new layer of reality. We should both be able to comprehend it and to use it for enhancing comprehension of our day-to-day non-internet reality. We must take this new facet into consideration when we design our teaching programs. My current report summarizes an one year experience with a course, which has been ran one time as an experiment. This course tried to improve students' skills and attitudes towards using the network for sociological research.   full text

Essay:
Patricia Leigh and Kay Ann Taylor

Student Essay:
Tom Scovill

Essay:
Ryan M. Combs

Uncharted Waters in Distance Education: Sailing Between Scylla Charybdis
  Michael Steer and Leonie Cheetham

Renwick College, a centre for research and postgraduate professional development administered by Sydney's Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children and affiliated with the University of Newcastle, introduced during the 2000-2001 academic years, its first distance learning programs. This article describes and analyses the processes through which College faculty and staff addressed the key organisational and resource issues that arose during the transition period. The process involved conversion from traditional campus lecture and print-based course delivery to mailed print manuals supported by CD-ROM and online delivery.

The analysis employs a systems framework to describe the following competing factors in the planning and implementation processes (a) the circumstances and major issues that under-pinned the exercise and (b) the perils encountered by organisers as they navigated between on one hand, the Scylla of retaining the psychological comfort of conservatism, and on the other the Charybdis of scepticism about the worth of the new program.  full text