DocAndersen
Many years ago, I ran an international teaching society. We had forums on three different platforms. Our first forum was on Bitnet. Bitnet was a group of BBS (Bulletin Board Service) systems that you could dial-up via the phone and connect to and use. The BitNet system allowed you to on your local BBS, write a message that could be read about the world. This was in the days before the internet and we thought that was cool at the time. We then also had a forum on the AOL Classroom (Americ Online) and Compuserve in the education forum and were a forum on the Steps system from Indiana Unversity. Finally, we ended with a listserv on the Internet called DTS-L. The group was called the Society of Dead teachers and I’ve talked about it before. That group reached around 16000 members worldwide at its height. For the most part, we had between 3-5000 people talking about the topics and questions asked around the world. Our little group was voted one of the friendliest listservs on the internet by three different Universities.
We had one you, you can do something, but should you do something.
I try to live by that rule in what I do. It isn’t always easy. But I try.
Yesterday I got an email from a member of DTS (we had several names we started inspired by the movie “The dead poet’s society.”) My friend is starting a discussion group on Yahoo. He wanted to get the old DTS Bylines and rules from years ago. I only had them in a very old achieve from my Macintosh days, so converting the file took a while.
Back in the days of the SE and the SE/30 Macintosh computers, the actual CD drives we had were slower than the ones you have today on your computer. So you have to make some modifications to get the old disk to read in the newer drives. I got several files, not readable errors, before I remembered that. It has been more than 20 years since I needed to get at some of my old Macintosh files.
Anyone else remembers dialing a phone connection to reach the internet?
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Question of
Did you ever use a BBS?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Did you ever use Bitnet?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you remember AOL?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you remember Compuserv?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you know what STEPs stood for? if so tell me in the comments!
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Yes
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No
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Question of
14.4 does it mean anything to you?
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Yes
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No
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Q: DID YOU EVER USE A BBS?
Yes (2 votes) – 20%
No (8 votes) – 80%
Q: DID YOU EVER USE BITNET?
Yes (2 votes) – 22%
No (7 votes) – 78%
Q: DO YOU REMEMBER AOL?
Yes (8 votes) – 73%
No (3 votes) – 27%
Q: DO YOU REMEMBER COMPUSERV?
Yes (3 votes) – 38%
No (5 votes) – 63%
Q: DO YOU KNOW WHAT STEPS STOOD FOR? IF SO TELL ME IN THE COMMENTS!
No (8 votes) – 100%
Q: 14.4 DOES IT MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU?
Yes (3 votes) – 38%
No (5 votes) – 63%
Before wifi, what I remember is that there must be a landline connected to the computer so one can connect to the net. Mighty slow too ?
modems were slow, I started out with a 90 baud acoustic coupler. just loading the AOL screen after login was an exercise in patience!
True. So when kids these days complained about the specs of gadgets gifted to them (instead of saying thanks) I feel like I have to do this ?????
It is a cycle. When I was little the cool gift was a bike. But if your parents got a practical bike, not a cool bike, it was frustrating!
Is that so? I was raised to make do with what I have. I still have that kind of mentality until now so I easily get contented in life. I am grateful I don’t have a kid.
i suspect there are many things different. i know having children has been a joy and a burden.
all things I guess all things.
I hope you take this in the spirit I am writing this! I had to get my nephew to review this with me. (He calmly said, “Yes you dealt with that, let me help you remember.” We talked for an hour.) Thanks for prompting a great conversation.
He then reminded me that I am the healthiest person in this house and I probably need to find something that will improve my memory. Any suggestions?
Personally, for memory improvement I like to use cell phone games (I play puzzle games for recollection).
the other thing I do for memory is write! The wander project is my way of making sure my children will know what I was thinking about!
That is such a great gift for them. They have a great dad.
Not sure they see it that way. But thank you very kind to say!
I once only sign up for AOL but did not use
it was an interesting service, I was there for many years.
I remember AOL but apart from that all that you shave written about here sounds really archaic. 😀
it is all old stuff. I started with an acoustic coupler modem many years ago.
do you remember Plato online?
i loved Plato, my dad at a terminal in his office at Indiana University. The University of Illinois super-computer project!
yep! hadn’t thought of it in years. really takes me back…
you used to have to ask for groups.
load group geology
mostly just learned algebra on it
at the time i was into astronomy. it had facts (text) but later on there were better systems so my initial Plato experience was a frustration!
they even had a game about Moria, though it was never completed as far as I know
yeah the plato crew was broken up. It was originally intended to teach the potential of computers to professors and high school teachers.
In the end, it never achieved its goal.
which is a shame, it was a worthy goal
Part of that was the creation of the advanced tech group (Mark Andressen and a few other really critical developers moved to that group.) Michigan had announced their AI project and Illinois had to catch up.
even then, schools were being dumbed down
As a former teacher, I can tell you that schools were being dumbed down before kids arrived for their first day of school.
Schools do bad things. As do teachers, but still there should at least be a modicum of respect.
I respect the teachers, not the administration
that I sadly agree with all the way around
the administration has one job- provide support for the teachers. and they’re doing the exact opposite
i do think it is a little less broad. I knew many good principals. I know many good principals. The reality of where they are is very difficult.
We do not consider education critical in the US.
to be fair, principals have to worry about lawsuits first and foremost. which is utterly stupid, but that’s the culture we allow ourselves to live in
it is always interesting what we’ve created. Justice is blind, so the mice scurry about.
lawyers love a litigious society
This brings me memories of my first steps in the internet.
That was the goal! The really scary thing is all of the changes have been over less than 30 years!
I have heard only about AOL.
The rest of the services were mostly us. Bitnet did go international.
I do remember AOL and CompuServ but no idea what STEPs means.
I doubt more than 40 people in the entire world know what it (STEPs) meant. Other than some schools there we really only about 40 users!
Student
Teacher
Electronic
Productivity
System
It was a joint project between the Indiana State Department of Education and Indiana University.
Well that explains it. I have never been to Indiana.
Trick question. 🙂
It was, it was a great idea that just never took off.
Unfortunately, I didn’t use any of the things listed.
They are old world internet. Not as in Europe as the old world. But the original internet long before the world wide web!
Frankly speaking, I have no idea what this is, dear friend … it’s all new to me…..or if I were to write in Chinese … I would just know so much about it hahaha
it is about the old days and dailing up to connect to the internet.
Well now I know what it is …. thank you very much
🙂 it is amazing overall sometimes when you look back at the change!
Yeah, that’s really crazy how things went, dear friend
it really is, back then we had one computer connected to the internet. now we have one computer per person connected to the internet!