Doug Johnson

‘Tis a Joy to be Simple
Head for the Edge, January 2001

Frequently Asked Questions for Etch-A-Sketch Technical Support (Author Unknown)
Q: My Etch-A-Sketch has all of these funny little lines all over the screen.
    A: Pick it up and shake it.
Q: How do I turn my Etch-A-Sketch off?
    A: Pick it up and shake it.
Q: What’s the shortcut for Undo?
    A: Pick it up and shake it.
Q: How do I create a New Document window?
    A: Pick it up and shake it.
Q: How do I set the background and foreground to the same color?
    A: Pick it up and shake it.
Q: What is the proper procedure for rebooting my Etch-A-Sketch?
    A: Pick it up and shake it.
Q: How do I delete a document on my Etch-A-Sketch?
    A: Pick it up and shake it.
Q: How do I save my Etch-A-Sketch document?
    A: Don’t shake it.

All technical support should be so simple. And in order for it to become that way, many software and hardware manufacturers need to do an abrupt about face. Instead of more features, more flexibility, more clipart, more fonts, more sounds, more wizards, more animations, or more templates, I want technology that does less. Then I as a teacher can do more. Let me explain.

In a previous life I was a writing teacher. My students were in class a maximum of 250 minutes a week. Now I could do a number of different things with those minutes. We could brainstorm writing ideas, we could talk about grammar or spelling rules, we could study effective organizational patterns, we could discuss our writing, we could read each other’s writings, and we could actually write, edit, and revise.

Or we could learn how to use writing technologies. Now I have to admit that back then (when the earth was still cooling) I spent very little time teaching penmanship - the writing technology of the day. Our formatting rules were simple: final draft in ink, one-inch margins on wide-rule paper, and name and date at the top of the page. Enough technology. Let’s write.

Early writing programs for students (and teachers) were simple. They had to be since the machines of the day ran on 64 kilobytes or less of RAM instead of 64 megabytes or more that the current machines now have. Take a little jog down memory lane and see if you remember any of these programs:

1. PrintShop for the Apple II series. If you could do nothing else with a computer, you could at least use PrintShop to make simple greeting cards, 8 ½ X 11 inch “posters,” and banners. There was a large four-item menu choice, a choice of several fonts, and a few, really usable graphics with which to decorate your publishing effort. The output was on a dot-matrix printer, often colorized with magic markers, and proudly displayed as a sign of one’s computer literacy.
2. Bank Street Writer. This was a real, live word processor. While it lacked talking paper clips, fonts, a graphic user interface, and ability to publish to the web, it did allow a student and many a teacher to write, edit, and print. As I remember, you didn’t even need a shift key on your keyboard. You typed a control character to let the program know you wanted to start that proper noun with an uppercase letter. Made you think about it. This was a word processor built by teachers. And kids wrote with it rather than played with it.
3. The Writing Center for the Macintosh. The classroom newsletter has been a staple final project for many units of study. Illustrating one’s finding with pictorial information that helps the reader understand the written message is a hallmark of professional publishing. Although limited in layout, the Writing Center allowed a novice publisher to drop in clipart that was carefully selected to support common curricular topics.

After working with today’s Word, WordPerfect, and even AppleWorks, I yearn for such programs. Happily, there are still some writing tools that still put writing first.

1. AlphaSmarts. Lightweight, tough, and nearly single function, portable keyboards like AlphaSmarts take almost no time to teach and still allow students to do 90% of their writing and editing work. If your students are going to have fun with one of these computers (and they will), their enjoyment will come from authoring a funny, poignant or just plain well-turned piece of writing. Keep the fancy fonts and funny noises and animated graphics, thank-you very much.
2. Microsoft Word 2000. The current version of Microsoft Word gives the user the choice of 116 commands in nine drop down menus as well as another 50 or so buttons on the screen. So you say this is an example of good writing software? Well, yes. One of the clever features of the latest version of Word is that the user sees only a limited set of the most commonly used commands, not all 116. If the writer doesn’t use “AutoSummarize” or “Nudge,” the writer doesn’t have to see it. It’s a good start in simplifying a product that, like most, has long suffered from feature bloat.

We as media specialists need to encourage the acquisition and use of devices that are simple if we are going to prevent the dreaded “Intelligence Deficit Syndrome” described in this column in the last issue. Let’s work to eliminate the learning curve associated with too many features on products, look for devices engineered by human beings, and just let people get on with the tasks they really want to accomplish.

Most of my Head for the Edge columns, updated and edited, can be found in my latest book. Buy it and I might be able to afford a nicer nursing home one day. Thank you.