Collaboration with colleagues and access to equipment at other institutions is facilitated by network services such as email, telnet, and ftp. Some granting institutions require or prefer electronic submission of grant proposals. Faculty web pages provide access to course materials at a time and place convenient to the student. This is especially useful for commuters, who constitute a large part of the SWT population, and MITC students. Classroom demos can use remote web pages or materials prepared by SWT faculty on their office machines, but they can be impeded by slow network connections.
Students send email inquiries rather than come to office hours.
Some faculty require students to submit assignments electronically. Some faculty use class newsgroups to facilitate communication among students, who may be located in different labs cities and between students and faculty. Network services allow faculty to access SWT computers from home or other remote locations such as conferences or research sites. Networks support students working in dorms or apartments and provide equity for students who are not comfortable wandering around campus at night to go to computer labs and for students who live out of town. Use of network services will continue to increase.