Last summer, Charlie spent "a couple of intense weeks with student mentors," who helped him learn how to create his own web site. Once Charlie "cracked the code" of doing the web site on his own he felt that he was finally the initiator with regard to making use of the technology. He hadn't felt this way before, and Charlie says that this new perspective really motivated him.
Charlie was also motivated just by seeing that he could put his work on the Web. "I'm passionate about this, and this is a great way to share that passion--a good professional repository."
Having developed his Netscape Composer skills with the help of the student mentors, Charlie, equipped with his iMac and new skills, went about the task of creating his course site.
Though Charlie didn't get as much put online as he would have liked, after about a week of work he was ready for the course to begin and introduce it to his students. When asked about his students' reaction to the site, Charlie admitted that "about two thirds of the students groaned." Some of the students' trepidation was because they don't have access to the Internet at home. Others just weren't regular technology users.
Charlie was careful to accomodate students who were hesitant. He made hard copies of things for students who wanted them, and eventually was able to bring an iBook cart into the classroom to help with access and comfort. Charlie was fascinated that during the second semester, when he finally had the iBook cart in his room, the technology use "...rapidly became seamless. Kids would... just grab a book while teaching was going on, and would email me some things right there."
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