Do I understand it right that we'll have live discussion available for the classes? How do we do that? Do we need to install any special software? Just want to make sure I've got all the "technology bugs" exorcised before the class starts.
From what I understand you can use a few different types of "chat tools." The easiest being an Applet that runs in your browser. There is a link in MACO's site that talks about chats.
The easiest for this will be to download and install mIRC. It will allow you to run multiple IRC channels at a time. There's info for it here on reefs.org.
Once you've downloaded mIRC, join #reefs This is done by typing "/join #reefs" in any window, once the app is launched.
You'll be able to config it so that it does this automatically each time you connect. It's really quite simple. I believe reefs.org has a set of instructions for this.
After installing mIrc, can you get to a screen lthat looks like
?
You get there from choosing File from the top menu, then Options from the dropdown menu, then click on the Connect Folder shown on the left side of the screen. Enter server name shown in this screenshot, change the nickname to your own. I'm now using the server shown but others may work. Once you've gotten to this point, click on the connect to IRC server button.
Once connected, (it'll take a few moments) type the command Brian gave earlier in the join dialog box.
Or, rather than typing that command, enter it in the Perform tab of that same options window Hal showed, and check the option to "perform on connect". That will connect you to the channel automatically.