The Virtual ATDP began as a simple idea a decade ago.

That idea was to have a class at the UC Berkeley ATDP that would introduce students to the internet and how it was revolutionizing almost every aspect of culture and society globally.Thus was born The Internet Classroom (TIC) at ATDP, in the summer of 1996.

The Internet Classroom had a straightforward goal: its students learned how to code web pages in HTML, and to build sites for the WorldWideWeb. TIC's vision, however, was much broader: its instructor, Lloyd Nebres, sought to create an online community of students and mentors, a community which had a 'half-life' beyond the summer session at ATDP. That is, its participants would continue in a variety of academic and social relationships, throughout the academic schoolyears. In practice, TIC students remained in close touch with each other and with TIC's instructors and mentors, for the duration of their high school years, and even beyond, as college and grad school students.

Eight annual iterations of TIC and the Advanced Internet Classroom (AIC) later, an evolution took place.

In the summer of 2004, TIC/AIC spawned The Virtual ATDP (TVA) lab class. The core idea was that the successful online community that The Internet Classroom engendered could be a model for ATDP as a whole. Instead of just propagating online community in one or two classes, the idea was to involve as many classes in ATDP as possible.

So, that summer, students in the TVA lab class were sent out as internet TAs for various ATDP courses. Their mandate was to build online communities and create linkages within and across the ATDP academic community.

This summer, 2006, TVA is in its third iteration, and the virtual ATDP community looks to expand even further afield, to include parents and guardians, ATDP faculty and staff, and ATDP student alumni.

Everyone is welcome to participate in this small, but rich, academic community in cyberspace!

NEXT: How to use this site.