For 10/31/96 Drummer Column, Gibbs, 711 words

Macademia thrives

I just got back from a humongous CUE conference. CUE stands for Computer Using Educators, and there were 5,000 of us packed into the Santa Clara Convention Center for three days of teacher-led workshops, commercial exhibits, and hands-on software training. It was nice to see so many teachers interested in bringing technology into the classroom.

I learned a lot of stuff that wasn't exactly on the agenda. For example, I learned that most of the techno-teachers were from the elementary and middle school ranks. Most of the workshops and software exhibits were for K-8.

Why is that, I wonder? Do we stop teaching technology at 9th grade? Why doesn't the enthusiasm and CUE-provided material run evenly through to high school seniors? I skipped several lectures because my choices ranged from "Developing Interactive Literacy - With WiggleWorks" to "Explicit Phonics on CD-ROM."

Plenty of excellent programs did focus on K-12 issues, and 5-12 issues, but I didn't see many, if any, 9-12 issues addressed. The lectures on general trends were fascinating and drew the biggest crowds. We got a multimedia look at how technology will change the face of education.

Students will link worldwide with other students and form projects. They will see and talk with each other daily. Electronic textbooks and encyclopedias will be updated twice daily. Sick students at home will log on with the class for daily lessons.

Home-study education as an alternative to public schools will jump from its present 10-percent to 20-percent by the year 2000 -- this because children can access the world of learning from their computer, and many parents are now working at home through their "hoffice" computers and have more time to supervise.

In the commercial exhibits I felt like I was living Bill Gate's worst nightmare. Most everything was for the Mac. PCs were the underdogs, shoved off in distant corridors offering converted educational software. Now I know how Mac owners feel walking through CompUSA. Even the cheap memory chips were for Macs only.

Why is that, I wonder? Children grow through elementary and middle school in a virtual wonderland of educational Apple software and hardware, only to find themselves in PC-World at the high school. Why the shift?

I had a mission in mind on this trip, a specific agenda. I wanted information on hardware training. There wasn't any. No lectures, no exhibits, no workshops, no books on hardware issues. I guess Macs never break.

I did find a DOS tutorial off in the corner for $20. The woman at the booth gave me a second one free. They weren't moving too fast.

My other focus met with great reward. I wanted to learn about multimedia mixing software and the possibility of creating a CD Yearbook. My questions led me toward the Hyperstudio exhibit. I must mention here that I attended the conference with science teacher Tom Young.

We arrived as the Hyperstudio 20-minute demonstration was ending. The crowd was still seated. Tom sat in the back and filled out a form for the free drawing. I asked a clerk for a brochure. He gave me the brochure and a form for the free drawing. I had to write fast as they were shaking the bag. I tossed mine in last.

First some lady won a T-shirt. Then came the full Hyperstudio package. The winner was Tom Young of Benicia. Cool. We high-fived and promised to teach each other. Then the announcer, perhaps because this new Tom Young guy had just walked in and won the big prize without sitting through the presentation, said "Ah, heck, let's give away one more. What do you say?"

He drew another name. The winner was Steve Gibbs of Benicia. In just passing by, we walked away with almost $400 in software. Now we want to contact some K-8 people to show us how to use it.

The win put us in great spirits for the rest of the trip. We walked ten miles visiting every booth, collecting shareware and demos. We made lots of friends in the world of Macademia. We left feeling good, reveling in the predictions of David Thornburg, resident visionary: "Soon the operating system will be insignificant. Everything will work on everything."

That will be the day. Until then, keep the manuals.