Editors'
Note
Turning Middle
School Inside-Out
Middle grade
educators are constantly finding strategies to reach outside their
classrooms. This latest issue of Meridian celebrates the numerous
ways technology allows educators to expand beyond the boundaries of
place and time. In their pursuit of professional excellence, teachers
have turned to the Internet to seek out development opportunities.
Two of our feature articles, Middleweb:
A Dynamic Internet-Based Professional Learning Community, and,
Science Teachers' Interest in Online,
Self-Directed Professional Development Opportunities, explore
this phenomenon. Further articles expand the middle school experience
for students through the use of computer technologies. The practitioner
articles in this issue looks at a variety of approaches to learning
that challenge the limits of language arts, social studies, and service
learning with technology. Students reach into their subjects and produce
multimedia, maps and virtual histories transporting their work from
inside the classroom walls out to the world.
The
Living Article continues to thrive in this issue with Jackie Gottlieb's
discussion of Universal Design as a way to combine accessibility with
usability for all users. This article began its life in the Winter
2002 Issue with Alan Foley's discussion of accessible web design and
its affect on people’s use of technology. We welcome additional
responses to the living article. Please read the Living
Article Introduction for information on participating in this
growing commentary on accessible design and technology.
While publishing
an online journal is no longer a novelty, we are still struggling
to take advantage of all the opportunities multimedia offers. This
issue, more than any to date, pushes the limits of a scholarly journal
by including video, student presentations and much more. To assist
future authors, we have revised our guidelines
for submission to include strategies and suggestions for including
features such as video, sound, and other multimedia including Flash™
and PowerPoint™. Our readers who feel they have experiences,
research or even practical applications of technology in the middle
schools to share are invited to submit manuscripts to Meridian.
This issue
of Meridian offers new approaches to professional development and
to classroom practice. The issue itself is a testament to the concept
of virtual work and collaboration as Beth currently works and lives
in Asheville, North Carolina and Shannon works and lives in Raleigh,
North Carolina, over 250 miles away. We encourage our readers to explore
the possibilities of collaboration and virtual work. We often ask
students to explore the world outside of the classroom through Web
site visits, WebQuests and other Internet research however we often
do not encourage virtual collaborations. Is this an area that we should
be encouraging our middle school students to explore?
A very special
thanks to Dr. Beckey Reed, our managing editor, and our advisors,
Dr. Edwin Gerler and Dr. Lisa Grable, and the entire Meridian Editorial
Board for all their continuing invaluable efforts, diligence, and
leadership.
Elizabeth
Snoke and Shannon White
Co-Editors, Meridian: A Middle School Computer Technologies Journal
