What a way to end the old year and start the new year. In yesterday’s “hard copy” of the Petaluma Argus-Courier, my last blog for 2009 was printed on page C3. In today’s “online edition” of the A-C, we continue our journey along the Petaluma Information Highway that was establish in 1995. WE (Me, Myself, & I) retreated to “you know who’s” famous garage (which still hasn’t been cleaned up as much as it could be) and searched for any historical documents from these earlier times. “Eagle-Eyes” was the first to spot the file labeled, “PetalumaNet Scrapbook: 1995-2001.” It was organized according to academic school years: 1995-96, 1996-97, etc.
The very first page was titled, Petaluma Tech Corps – A Project Sponsored by the Institute for ECO Education, in Collaboration with the – Petaluma School District, Petaluma Business Community, Petaluma Educational Foundation, and Petaluma Parent-Teacher Associations, founded September 1, 1995. The words “Tech Corps” were crossed out and copied over with the word, Net, to read PetalumaNet.
The next page continued with a Mission Statement, plus Goals & Objectives for the 1995-96 school year, as follows:
Mission: To mobilize the community resources in order to provide an opportunity for the Petaluma area schools to enhance the teaching-learning process through greater use of computer technology.
Goal: To promote the use of telecommunications as a teaching tool.
Objectives:
1. Obtain the resources necessary to connect each school site to the Internet with access
to the educational resources of the World Wide Web.
2. Help classroom teachers and their students exchange e-mail messages with students in
other countries.
3. Assist teachers to use computer technology in conjunction with environmental and
ecologically related projects.
4. Orient teachers to use appropriate software in conjunction with various subject matter
areas of the curriculum.
5. Organize Computer Technology Fairs for classroom teachers that will demonstrate
various instructional applications of computer technology.
6. Survey and prioritize the computer technology training needs of teachers.
7. Recruit volunteers from the community to serve as instructors and tutors.
Looking back, that was an ambitious set of desired objectives. What was actually accomplished will be documented in future blogs. Stay tuned, and Happy New Year!
P.S. By the way, a couple of more “old” boxes from the garage were thrown out for Green Waste to pickup tomorrow. What a way to start the New Year!