Updated 9.28.98

Participants:

Danny Pardi Dawn Mathis Phillip Correia Linda Burton

Akira's notes from Day One: Things went very well. Our class has a good balance of both experienced computer users and novices. At first I was a bit nervous about this being the first attempt at this so my curriculum was just a sketch outline. I didn't have much of a sure idea of the pacing and depth that the class would require. I also had planned to bring lots of computer catalogs to use in a mock shopping contest. I was half way through the Sumner Tunnel and realized I forgot them. At rush hour it was no time to turn back. I decided that stressing over it was just going to make things spiral downhill. I reset myself to being positive. After all its not the props but the attitude and enthusiasm that get students going. So I was determined to go in and really try to be energetic. Once through the tunnel into East Boston and I had enough time to go buy spiral bound journal books. The students would have to write EVERYTHING they observed and felt. The goal was to get them to mark the trail of the class.

I got there and luck came ! We managed to scrounge up three computer catalogs in various desks and mailboxes !

First off I had them write what would be a baseline marker of what they know NOW of computers and buying one. This will be an interesting yardstick to use at the end of the class. Loretta, the primary teacher who is assisting me, is a great help. She works to encourage the students to delve more deeply into their writing and helps them complete their thoughts and feelings. I really want to make sure we have a real subjective point of view for this work. It will make the web page more intimate and REAL.

Next we reviewed what a computer is and how it works. I brought in a computer. I took the cover off so we could see all its parts. We covered RAM, Hard Drive, Processor, Floppy Drive, CD-ROM Player etc. We did some math by covering bytes and kilobytes and megabytes and gigabytes. All this was in preparation for looking at our catalogs.