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Date:         Sat, 3 Oct 1992 15:22:56 -0700
From:         James Crosswhite <JCROSS@OREGON.BITNET>
Subject:      Computer Travels

Computer traveler here, checking back in with two more
principles.  First, *simplify*. I've already discussed this
a little in my postings on teaching computer use and
teaching writing, and on what computers are good for. I want
a single platform, easily seviceable machines, slowly paced
introductions of new hardware and software. I want simple
security arrangements. I want clear, mimimal goals for
getting students going on the word processor. (By the way,
I'm a newcomer to the Mac, and I've never used Windows. I
loaded Word last night, used the "Jump Start" cheat sheet
provided in the package, and I was off and running within an
hour. OK, OK, I did get a *little* help from my 11-year-
daughter, who uses Macs and Works at school. But I could
have written a short paper easily, and I could have mixed
fonts, too!)
  Simplifying helps in several ways. It allows one to focus
one's attention on what's most important. It provides fewer
ways for things to go wrong--and this is a big concern of
mine when it comes to thinking of a large program. A simple
system also gives users (teachers) some hope of
understanding its basic features, and so making more
informed decisions about how to use it.
  Next: the principle of maximum access. Quite simply, the
more access the better. The more available machines, and the
more they can communicate with one another, the better.
Since I believe that communication is one of the most
important benefits the machines give, access is really
access to one another (the main benefit of MBU, too).
  But available technology is only one part of it. Access
also means training--for teachers and students. For
students, aside from any formal training, I like the idea of
undergraduate consultants in fairly large numbers. They
should be in the labs at night, and if the teachers agree,
in the classrooms during the day. They should float around
as they are needed. Huge amounts of class time are lost
while students sit waiting for the single teacher or
consultant to make his or her way around the room.
Undergraduates also pose less of a threat (to teachers) than
consultants from Big Computing, or even graduate students.
  Teacher training needs to be part of whatever training is
already in place for teachers. In the Composition Program at
Oregon, I would make training in the use of computers part
of the year-long training sequence already in place. I would
follow up on this training with occasional workshops offered
during the year--probably offered by graduate students for
graduate students (Graduate Teaching Fellows teach Comp.
courses at Oregon). Without training, neither students or
teachers have real access.
  There's another kind of access, more psycho-social in
kind. Some students and teachers think there are computer
people and non-computer people, and this tends to disable
people who think of themselves as non-computer people. The
staff which does the training and consulting and maintenance
needs to reflect the diversity of the users.
  A kind of access more difficult to control is: who enters
college with computer experience and who doesn't--and who
has a machine and modem at home and who doesn't. This kind
of access is partly enabled by wealth, and so isn't easily
provided by a school to its students. In the proposal I
delivered to my Provost's office this week, I just passed
the buck, saying that if the University decided to move to
computer enhanced learning in composition courses, it would
have to communicate with prospective students in a new way
about what equipment they would need. (I know of at least
one campus that includes a fee for a computer in its regular
tuition. How do other campuses solve this problem?)

  I'll be back with more later, maybe soon, but maybe much
later. I'm off to UC Davis next week to look in on the
classrooms there. I also have to swing through Reno to give
a talk on Polar Bears (no kidding--actually, a talk on
Chapter 3 of Barry Lopez's *Arctic Dreams*: "Ursus
maritimus") at the Western Lit meetings. If you don't hear
from me soon, I'll be back in a week or so with news from
the Golden State.
   jim crosswhite  jcross@oregon.uoregon.edu