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TI101_9.TXT
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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN
LIMA NEWSLETTER APRIL 1993
~~~~~ TI-101 ~~~~~
OUR 4/A UNIVERSITY
by Jack Sughrue
Box 459
E.Douglas MA 01516
#9 AFTERWORD
The eight-session course on the
educational aspects of our TI-99/4A
was harder work for me than I first
realized when Charlie Good asked me
to write it.
I thought then that it would be
fun, and it was. The problems,
however, were a shortage and a
surfeit of materials. In my computer
room at home there is probably the
largest collection of TI printed
materials in existence. (Yes, Barry
Traver, even more than you.) I also
have a few thousand disks and tapes
at home and in my third-grade
classroom at the Stapleton School in
Framingham, Massachusetts. Couple
that with the developmental learning
books and materials I've gathered up
in my 30-plus years of teaching in
college and secondary, as well as
elementary, public schools, and you
can imagine the solid-packed storage
areas of materials relating to
education and to computing. That's
the surfeit. (Or "junk," as my
patient wife refers to it.)
The shortage is what kinds of
educational materials presently are
available to the average or new TI
consumer.
So a dilemma was trying to write
about available materials and explain
how those materials could be gotten.
And, at the same time, discuss what
ways all these and other materials
could be used to provide the best
education for the new and experienced
learner, old or young. Education was
the main concern.
So I went through newsletters -
eleven filled boxes, alphabetized by
group and then by chronology. Most
of these newsletters no longer
publish. (Just this week another
great - and the only Connecticut -
newsletter died: Janet Ryan's NUTMEG
99.) Next, I went through all the
magazines (MINI, ENTHUSIAST,
REFLECTIONS, 99er, and many others
that were devoted solely to the TI).
Then the cartridges and their
manuals, the disks and their manuals,
the tapes and their manuals.
Then all the books.
I was astounded to discover all
the stuff out there devoted to the
educational aspect of our computer.
So, I figured the best way to
approach the whole thing was to give
a bit of the history leading to
present-day developmental learning
methodologies and explain how the TI
can readily plug into that structure
at home and at school.
I used the TI at home with my
four kids as they were growing up,
and I still use the TI with my
present third-grade tykes. My new
third-grade compatriot in the next
room was so intrigued, she went to
the Boston 1992 Fayuh and bought
three consoles for herself, along
with a PBox, tape recorder, piles of
cartridges, and so on. Now the two
of us have six TI's running
practically all the time during the
school day with very specific tasks
for each of the children. Every
third-grader gets at least an hour a
week on one of the machines, and they
become computer operating pros in a
very short time.
But, more importantly, their
academic skills continue to improve
steadily, as the TI's not only serve
as stimulant, but they enhance much
of the classroom learning.
The excitement has not gone out
of the machine, nor the good learning
experience; it's just a new clientele
is now ready to proceed with reckless
abandon. (Including learning how to
spell "potato" without an "e").
It's a real shame that more
people aren't aware how wonderful
(and wonderfully easy) our computer
is for children or for any learners.
Once I saw how much material I
had and started perusing it, I
realized that I needed to get back to
using lots of great stuff that
somehow slipped away from me over the
years, even though I have never
stopped using the TI in well over a
decade (things like "Name That Bone"
and "Telling Time" and "Square Pairs"
and "The Everything Teacher" and
"Cosmopoly" and and and and ....
But then I had to write some
articles which were practical for
grandparents (which, in a few months,
I'm about to become for the first
time and second time, as both my
daughters are mothers-to-be) and
teachers and uncles and friends to
use with new learners.
So more selection.
There are so many programmers
and other educational TI enthusiasts
who have done and are doing so much
for the next generation (people like
Jim Peterson and Eunice Spooner and
Don Shorock) that it would have been
impossible to even mention everyone.
That's why I chose specific examples
to represent all.
(Don Shorock, by the way, recently
sent me two brand new disks full of
his excellent educational materials
in his remarkable, unique programming
manner.)
Before I leave this series,
though (even in this parting note), I
must take a few minutes (inches?) to
tell about one of the great
programmers for early childhood and
elementary schools: Tony Falco. Tony
wrote a pile of wonderful, commercial
programs (including some teriffic
ones for 99er MAGAZINE). He did
WORDWIZARD, NUMBER NIBBLER, the
BEAMER math series, WORD-WORLD, THE
CRAYON BOX, SUPER-CITY, and a pile of
classics too long to print out here.
He also scrunched better than almost
anyone. His tinies are still being
reprinted in newsletters all over the
world, years after their original
publication in M.U.N.C.H.
His specific learning programs
(like the subtraction series on
borrowing) are the best there are for
our computer.
All his commercial and early
magazine programs and a fascinating
batch of others have been gathered
together by Tony at my urging and are
released as a fundraiser for the
M.U.N.C.H. Computer Group (c/o Jim
Cox, 905 Edgebrook Drive, Boylston,
MA 01505) on five disks (about 70
programs) for $8.95, including
shipping and handling. A super
educational package. I learned more
about programming from studying
Tony's programs than I did from any
other programmer. I would never have
been able to do PLUS! if it weren't
for Tony.
My kids at school love his
programs, many with extraordinary
graphics.
What does all this educational
exploration really lead to?
Hopefully, a self-networking
source for all the great educational
uses and materials. An open learning
network for everybody!
If people writing programs or
finding programs or materials
relating to the TI as an educational
tool wish to assist me as a clearing
house, I'd be happy to do it. I'll
not only be sure stuff gets out to
the kids, but I'll distribute any
materials through TIGERCUB, as well
as the Lima and M.U.N.C.H. groups.
That way, any adults needing any
educational materials could get their
hands on the stuff quickly and
inexpensively.
John Kolean, editor of
MICROpendium, recently wrote that he
has had a console hard at work for
many years. I, too, have had
consoles (two) that have seen great
battles for over a decade and are
still operating trouble free. These
two consoles run the entire school
year, all day every day. They have
been banged on by elementary children
all this time and have been used all
summers by my family. They have been
lugged on vacations to Cape Cod and
to workshops in libraries and other
schools throughout New England. And
have operated flawlessly. I've
cleaned them (because school chalk
dust and sticky little hands are the
worst things that can happen to
computers), but I've never had them
in for repair to TI or even to our
user group. I see no reason why they
won't still be operating on all four
cylinders well into the 21st Century
(at least until 2003, when I
retire).
The advice I gave about joining
and participating in user groups (and
using their text and software
libraries, as well as receiving an
informative monthly newsletter) is
still the best advice I can give any
potential user of the 4A for
educational purposes (or for any
other purposes). From there, you can
branch out beyond your wildest
dreams.
Sorry, I have to get back to my
LOGO II. There are all kinds of
things I'm just discovering. Maybe I
might even let the kids use it.
Someday.
So, on behalf of Mr.^Shakespeare,
Ms.^Bronte, Mr.^Bell, The Old
Professor, and all the other members
of the TI-101 Class, good fortune!
There's always TIme for TIing for
educaTIon, enterTaInment, and
InTellectual sTImulaTIon.
.PL 1