Submitted by:
Jack E. Frisch
Emeritus Professor
Communication and the Arts
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
568 Edgewood Drive
Green Bay, WI 54302-4518 USA
v: (414) 468-4225
f: (414) 465-2718
e: FRISCHJ@UWGB.EDU
Categories:
Education, K12; Education, higher; Education, continuing or distance
Keywords:
Innovative or improved ways of doing things; More equitable access to technology or electronic information; Leverage of public funding; Volunteer contributions of time and energy
The Story:
I am excited about the opportunity to speak of my use of the Internet. Excited and envious. I have no earth-shaking events or equipment to relate, only rather ordinary uses. Part of the point, however, is that those ordinary uses remain, for me, quite extraordinary: I have been “connected” to the Net only for the past year and a half.
The envy comes from the fact that this has occurred virtually at the moment of my retirement as a university professor. Consequently, conventional use of the Internet for my teaching and traditional research is something I can only wish had been available sooner.
On the other hand, a very particular and invigorating value of this “late start” is that I now have some “extra” time for further investigation of the network itself. I can enlarge various areas of interest, and share some of those discoveries with others both in and out of academia. In fact, I already often pass on to colleagues information, suggestions, critiques and the like gleaned from contacts on the network. This enlarges and helps retain my active participation as well as enhancing the scope of “outreach” for my colleagues.
Also, and very importantly, that term “colleagues” now includes a whole new category: those new acquaintances, friends, interesting people discovered, talked with, and learned from on the network.
In sum, this availability of the Internet for me, even with an old slow-mo system, has been a remarkable rejuvenation. Participation in various Lists (conferences, discussions) is for me a continual expansion of learning, involvement, and consequent growth in many directions.