How I Arrived on the Web: A History Teacher's Tale

Abstract

FOR HISTORY TEACHERS, the Web seems ubiquitous these days. Many of us are completely accustomed to drawing on Web-based resources, constructing our own Web materials, engaging in various kinds of distance learning activities, and (even if we aren't doing these things ourselves) hearing colleagues talk about it whether or not we want to listen. It wasn't always this way, of course. My own journey toward the new technologies has accelerated quickly in the past couple of years. The amount of time I spend either working or teaching on the Web is astonishing to me. It's time to reflect on how I got here. I suspect that many readers of this journal will recognize aspects of their own stories in mine. In 1994, I was working at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, an institution with a strong technological focus. One benefit of this was having a networked computer installed in my office somewhat earlier than most historians. It was a memorable moment; all at once, my desktop computer became something more than a glorified typewriter. The new technology propelled me into bewildering tasks: figuring out email protocols, learning a few simple Unix commands and, most vividly, understanding that thousands of computers all over the world, containing vast stores of information, were now connected to the machine on my desk. It was all text back then-screen after screen of words from libraries, universities, and government agencies. I accessed them through