Oldies But Goodies

I got into a bit of reminiscing with Ferdi Serim, a new ISTE Board member, last evening. I'd first got to know Ferdi when he was the outstanding editor of MultiMedia Schools magazine. (He had a few lapses of good judgement like publishing my writing, but nobody's perfect.) Ferdi's continued to be a real leader in the field of educational technology and online learning and I try to keep up with his work.

This visit got me thinking about the first article I wrote for MultiMedia Schools. I believe it was  Captured by the Web: K-12 Schools and the World Wide Web, that appeared in Mar/April 1995 issue of the magazine. I've always been proud of this article since I still think it was one of the first about the web written for a general education magazine.

But when I tried to open my draft of the article, I was stymied since it was written in an older version of ClarisWorks. It took a couple steps to see the document which made me reassess my strategy of moving content to my new website. I'd been moving my latest articles, thinking they would be of most value to readers. But now I think I better try to get my oldest stuff out there - while I can still open the documents!

In the process I also discovered that it was sort of fun to do a little time travel and see what "life was like back then." A whole 13 years have passed since I wrote the thing. For the rest of you geezers, do you remember

• Linkway stacks
• "the World Wide Web is that it is a system over 3000 individuals and organizations"
• Cello, MacWeb, LineMode, Mosaic browsers
• Jpeg View (for graphics), Sound Machine (for basic audio), and Simple Player (for digital video) helper applications
• 9600 baud modem ("I turn off the Auto-Load Images command.")
• Web Crawler, World-Wide Web Worm, The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Subject Catalogue search tools
• URouLette and Random Link from Yahoo random link generators. (Can you imagine making this recommendation today?

You get the idea. 

But I also like to think I was a bit prescient as well. This is how the article concludes: 

 ... be prepared, Educators! Graphic browsers like Mosaic will do for the Internet what the Macintosh and Windows interfaces did for operating systems: take complex and confusing tasks and make them simple. Even your most reluctant staff and youngest students will be able to access and create valuable Internet resources

As I wrote this article, I discovered almost daily new Web sites, utilities, or search tools. In view of how rapidly the Web is spreading (the number of sites is expected to double in 1995), this fantastic new resource for schools cannot be ignored.

 If interested, I am putting all my articles, old and new, in a blog format with an RSS feed. You can subscribe to <http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/> to follow. Remember all my writing has approved by the FDA as a non-addictive sleep aid.

Boogers, boats and rubrics

How's that for a non sequitur title?

The grandsons, six-year-old Paul and two-year-old Miles, are visiting this weekend (Yippee!). I have discovered that the computer is even a better babysitter than the television when one needs to get work done. (Bad Grandpa, I know.)

But for those other bad grandparents out there, I would highly recommend the Dave Pilkey website especially for kids who may already be Captain Underpants fans. Paul seems especially taken by George and Harold's Sidewalk Surfer 2000 (Aw, Man!!!) and Booger Buster 2000 (Watch out for those Nasty Nostril Nuggets from Bionic Booger Boy!) He obviously gets his taste from his father's side of the family, not from his mother, my little girl.

Anyway, the electronic babysitter has allowed me to get some more materials moved to my new website, including all my teacher/administrative technology self-evaluation rubrics - Basic, Advanced, Internet, and Administrative. These were last revised in 2002 and I would appreciate any updates you would like to suggest. I do know I will need to re-align to the refreshed NETS standards as well.

No, I am not going to neglect these lovely children. Boating, kite flying, swimming and reading will be a part of the weekend (between preparing for workshops in Virginia Beach and for NECC). We've already squeaked in one sunset cruise.

 

2006-2007 columns online

To the joy of insomniacs around the English speaking world, my school year 2006-07 columns are now online.

These include my LMC Head for the Edge columns:

• The Importance of Bricks, August/September 2006.
• The Decline of Reading, October  2006.
• The Power of Parents, November  2006
• Evaluating Collectively-Created Information, January  2007.
•  A Trick Question, January  2007.
• Nickel and Dimed, March  2007
• What Gets Tested Gets Taught, April/May  2007
  

and my Leading and Learning Media Matters columns:

• Wikipedia - Ban It or Boost It?, October 2006
• Demonstrating Our Impact - Putting Numbers in Context Part 1, Dec/Jan 2006/07
• Demonstrating Our Impact - Putting Numbers in Context Part 2,  March 2007
• Your Google Guide, May, 2007 the unexpurgated version - whoo, whoo!

and my Education World TechProof columns which are published online anyhow.

• Is Educational Climate Change Ahead?
• It's Delightful; It's del.icio.us
• Reading the Future
• Free is Good
• Technology and Design
• The 4th “R”
• Disappointed Again
• One Big Room
• My New (School) Year's Resolutions

I was also fortunate enough to have a few feature articles published, including:

• Rules for the Social Web, Threshold, Summer 2007
• Ethical Issues Surrounding Technology Technology Use in Schools," The Education Technology Guide, Issue 15. (Published by the Australian Media Group, Blackburn, Victoria)
• "Skills for the Knowledge Worker," Teacher-Librarian, October 2006.
• "Fight the Zero-Sum Game" Interactive Educator, Winter 2006.
  

Yes, dear readers, if you would like to use any of this material with your students or staff, please feel free. I retain copyright of my writing, selling rights to first publication only (as I would advise all writers to do).

I roughly estimate that is about 24,800 words total (not counting the blogging). Sleep well, all.