Verba says he also asks those around him for help.

"I've long learned that there is an inverse correlation between age and computer skills, so I always ask any young-looking undergraduate who comes into my office to help me," Verba says. "They always know what to do."

Bergen's group also provides support to professors. Technicians at the ICG helps set up e-mail accounts, construct Web pages, create threaded discussion groups and make automated announcement pages.

"I happen to be very fortunately located because I'm...where we have a good data center with good people who help elderly people who are technically over-the-hill figure out what's going on," Verba says.

Bergen says that for many faculty members who may be reluctant to dive into computing, the ICG helps make people comfortable.

"We always say that our most valuable skills have nothing to do with computing, but instead have to do with listening," Bergen says. "Generally, our first conversations have nothing to do with computing."

In those first conversations, Bergen says he tries to find out what the people's academic interests and goals for their courses are, then try to find a way to make those goals "practical and innovative."

Many times, the "killer [application] of the '80s and '90s"--e-mail--is the hook that draws faculty in, Bergen says.

"The lure of enhanced communication with students is really at the foundation of computing in courses," he says. "Many of the instructors who come to us may be nervous...really see that they develop new relationships with the students and the students develop new relationships with the course."

Nagy says that e-mail is "indispensable."

"I've really found e-mail just a wonderful medium for establishing contact with students. I answer questions on e-mail, and I find I can think much better because me answering happens when I have my books in front of me. All of my really important working books are at home."

For faculty like Nagy who really want to be on the cutting edge of technology, the ICG offers an intensive program where a staff member becomes the "steward" for a class and helps both students and the professor become comfortable with using computers in new ways.

In fact, Bergen says, sometimes the older people on campus teach the younger crowd.

"We go to sections and hold extracurricular sessions to teach them how to compute," he says. "Those are the most important students to catch--those who might be shy about computing itself."

Nagy, whose Literature and Arts C-14, "The Concept of the Hero in Greek Civilization," has its own Web page, is one of the examples of this intensive program.