NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/comp/edu/composit/475

Text File | 1992-11-15 | 5.2 KB | 111 lines

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Subject: (Fwd: *C&CD*) Kaypros and computer labs pre 1986 (20)
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Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 15:49:50 GMT
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Entry: 20
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1992 21:02:40 EST
From: IN%"[e-mail]" Robert Royar, (C&CD Moderator)
Message-id: <1992Nov14.210240.v7.018.1.Grendel.Lair@Cratylus>
Subject: Kaypros and computer labs pre 1986 (20)
Reply-to: "Computers & Composition Digest (R. Royar)" <[e-mail]>
Organization: Cratylus Educational Software

Asking for info on systems from the 80s Gail Hawisher writes
>Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1992 10:47:46 -0600
>From: "(Gail E. Hawisher)" <[e-mail]>
>Subject: RE: software & hardware (*MBU*)
>Message-id: <[e-mail]>

>I
>remember that the Kaypro was out there too, but I don't remember any
>programs using these.
and
>Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1992 22:32:23 -0600
>From: "(Gail E. Hawisher)" <[e-mail]>
>Subject: RE: To Gail, about computers (*MBU*)

>I wonder if Doug Short knows who IBM funded for writing programs.
>Anyone know his e-mail address?
and
>Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1992 22:32:31 -0600
>From: "(Gail E. Hawisher)" <[e-mail]>
>Subject: RE: Early labs (*MBU*)

>It would be interesting to know if there were any computer writing
>labs/classrooms out there before 84 and whose they were.

Bellarmine College in Louisville had a Kaypro-equipped writing lab in 1986
or 1987.

U of L got their first two Apple II (pre IIe) labs for student writing in
1983 or 1984.  One was owned by the Center for Instructional Technology
(then called the Language Lab) and the other by School of Education.  Prior
to those two labs, Apples with simple editing software and DEC Rainbows
with the RED editor and a connection to the mini computers had been
available for drop in at two sites.  As a result of the creation of the ED
and CIT labs, classes were allowed to be held on an occasional basis to
train students to write on the computers.  I conducted a few in the Ed lab
in Spring 1984.

About 1985/86 U of L got massive funding for some very state of the art
facilities, but English did not get in on that deal.  The labs contained
VT300 terminals connected to an IBM mainframe and a Vax cluster and IBM PC
clones also connected to the mainframe. The Business School owned and
taught in two very swank labs (clean-room type facilities) configured so
that students could see each other, the teacher, and their computers
without having to move around.  The furniture in all their modern labs was
ergonomic (chairs with Lumbar support etc.).  Much of the upgrade was paid
for by local (Louisville) companies.  I'm not sure of the exact companies
that funded this work but some which have funded computers and robotics are
for U of L

  - General Electric (GE donated its old production line of robots to the
    UL Speed Scientific School),
  - Brown Forman (owners of the Jack Daniels Distilleries),
  - AT&T (which later created a major state of the art sattelite based
    conference and training center on an outlying U of L campus),
  - Digital Equipment Corporation,
  - Ky. Fried Chicken,
  - Capital Holding,
  - Humana,
  - Bingham Enterprises (once owners of Data Courier)

The former president of U of L (James Grier Miller) was the first person
documented as proposing a consortium of colleges and research institutions
connected together by a computer network.  This was in the mid 60s. He was
later the first head and co-founder of EDUCOM (see his article in Science
Oct. 23, 1966).

We began running classes in a non-networked lab at U of L on Apple IIes in
Fall 1985, then in Spring 1986 we switched to ITT X-Tras (PC Clones) in a
stand-alone lab. Both classes used the Perfect Writer program. In Fall 1986
(when I started the Computers and Composition Digest on Bitnet) and Spring
1987, the classes used a lab with MicroEmacs, Kermit, and a formatter I
wrote on the Micros (programs we gave the students to keep) and GNU-Emacs on
a cluster of Vax 750s and an 8650. They mailed files to some tech writers
and educators out in California. None of the MBU folks (save for Diane
Langston) knew how to (or according to the protests on NYIT's 5thC at the
time) saw any reason to use Bitnet.  In fact I can remember being told that
Bitnet and ARPA-Net were like passing fads that none of us would ever use.

Gee, I sure hope the NYIT 5thC and U of L's Computers and Composition
Digest get some mention in "this history of computers and composition that
Cindy, Paul, Charlie, and [Gail] are working on...". C&CD predates MBU by 3-4
years and I believe the 5thC began a year before that.  There's also
Forrest Houlette's Indiana Writing Project BBS (at Ball State) that ran for
a while in 1989 or so and the BreadNet run by Bill Wright.

 -- Robert Royar ([e-mail]) New York Institute of Technology
    "Do not search for the truth. Simply cease to cherish opinion."
                                                                - Sengstan

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