Conversing With Computers

Act 4: Reading & Writing the Web, 1995 - 2004.

HELLO WORLD!!!!

Home Surfing Weaving FAQ Web-ring

animated gif of anthropocentric desktop computer typing on it's own keyboard

We are so excited you decided to drop by our Web-site, *Reading and Writing the World Wide Web, 1995-2004.* We’ve been writing about computer pedagogy for some time, but all we had was boring old text…. Now, we can tell this history in FULL TECHNICOLOR with gifs, photos, backgrounds, fun fonts and more! And, through hyperlinks, we are able to bring the wide world of digital English teaching quickly to your fingertips. We invite you to wander this hypertext, follow the links, and discover all the myriad ways that English teachers and students learned to surf and weave the Web in the 1990s and early 2000s.

If you are new to reading hypertext, you might get disoriented. So, on every page, we’ve included a big button called HOME that you use to get right back to this welcome page. And, at the end of each page, you’ll see a NEXT button that will move you right along on your journey. Finally, if you click on a link that takes you to the wider World Wide Web, that link will open in a new window. If you don’t like where that link led you, just X out that window and this site will be waiting for you right underneath it.

Whenever you are exploring a new place like the World Wide Web, it helps to have a map so you can figure out where you want to go. To make sure you don’t get lost, here is a map of the “pages” of our “web-site”:

On our first page, Surfing the Web, we take a look at some of the exaggerated hopes that accompanied the diffusion of the World Wide Web in English classrooms. And, we also look back at some important critiques about digital access and online misinformation that remain timely!
On our second page, Weaving the Web, we look back at some of the innovative ways English teachers worked with students to compose hypermedia texts. You’ll learn all about hypercard, hyperstudio, HTML coding, weblogs and MORE! This might be the most radical shift we’ve yet recorded. You won’t want to miss this page!
On our third page, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), we answer YOUR questions about computer English pedagogy. You asked, we answered, and our answers may surprise you!!!
After you read all these pages, you’ll likely want to learn more. Our links page, or English Computing Web-Ring, will provide you with all the net resources you need to start teaching English online! As a bonus, we also have some cool photos!

What’s so great about the World Wide Web is that digital text can always be altered almost instantaneously. This text is not fixed or static like a book...It is under construction!