© 1996 Lawrence I. Charters
Washington Apple Pi Journal, Vol. 17, no. 6, November-December 1995, p. 14.
When we were first planned the Pi’s September 1995 General Meeting, I borrowed a book from Grace Gallager. in preparation, Macs for Teachers, by Michelle Robinette (IDG Books, 1995, ISBN 1-56884-601-0, $19.99). Grace had just purchased the book, and hadn’t even had time to remove it from her shopping bag, much less read it. Because of illness, she still hasn’t had a chance to read it, and those in attendance at the September meeting didn’t get a chance to hear about it, either.
Which is a shame: it is excellent, easily the best book on Macs in the classroom available, and a superb resource for parents, too. Michelle is a teacher herself and has a knack for knowing what is critical, what is nice to have, and what can be ignored. “Critical” classroom applications are vastly different from the business world: KidPix2, The Writing Center, and ClarisWorks. A bonus
. Most of the chapters discuss computer terminology and technology in “teacher terms” and how this technology can actually be used for teaching, rather than merely impressing the school board. Often I found myself reading chapters just to understand the chapter title, such as “ClarisWorks — the loaded Spud.” [A really great story, by the way.] Good writing is matched with wickedly brilliant cartoons from Richard Tennant’s “The Fifth Wave” series.
In addition to a worthwhile foreword by Steve Wozniak (required reading), there is a thirty page appendix on troubleshooting by David Pogue, covering everything from jerky mice to “No ding, no picture.” Every school computer lab manager, an:d parent, should read this section first when a crisis hits.
When I first noticed the book in Grace’s shopping bag, I commented that it was the first IDG “Dummies” series book I’d ever· seen without the offensive “dummies” word in the title. We both thought this quite funny, but on a serious note, this is the first book in the series I can wholeheartedly recommend.
IDG should take the hint: it isn’t nice to call. your customers dummies.