SIGGRAPH 1999: Electronic Schoolhouse


Overview:


    Everyone is an educator and everyone is a student.

    This simple tenet is the foundation and inspiration that is the

    Electronic Schoolhouse. It was the visualization of this principle that led its three chairs to amalgamate three programs (Educators Program, sigKIDS, Community Outreach) to create a unique wonderland of integrated education, where knowledge sparks in every corner, and inspiration ignites during every conversation.

    Education at the end of the 20th century is as multidimensional as it is challenging. The one-room schoolhouse is more evident than ever, yet its dimensions are infinite. We are a fabric of integrated circuits and interrelated topics. Students collaborate with peers halfway around the world, creating projects and establishing a lasting presence where they may not even share a common language. Educators retrieve and use tools from countries they have never visited; they scour library stacks of universities they will never see, exchange ideas with professionals they will never meet, and augment their curricula by perusing classes they will never attend. We learn tools as soon as they’re built. We teach those tools as quickly as we learn them. And as soon as we learn them, we encounter students who have already constructed more tools to augment those we have barely learned.

    We can choose to be overwhelmed or inspired.

    For while we can be easily distracted by the technology, we should be equally compelled to remember our fundamentals, the basics that are hard-coded into every theory and provide the cornerstones of every dazzling technique. As educators and students, artists and scientists, it is vital to remember that enlightenment occurs in the smallest interactions, and trans- formation from the most unlikely places.

    This Electronic Schoolhouse is such a place. We imagined an inte- grated experience where teachers could present papers in a Classroom and then walk their students through hands-on Workshops on the same topics. We envisioned an environment where students of all ages could learn the process of building a project and then explore the creation on their own in a Playground of interactive installations. We pictured a venue where profes- sionals involved in various computer graphics industries could offer teachers and students interaction they might not be able to otherwise access. We conceived of a Library where a plethora of valuable resources, references, and publications could be borrowed indefinitely, and casual conversation could lead to collaboration and inspiration.

    Through our incredible contributors, we believe we have realized our vision and we welcome you to the SIGGRAPH 99 Electronic Schoolhouse.

Electronic School House Co-Chairs:


Subcommittee Member(s):


Jury Member(s):


Conference:


Electronic Schoolhouse Reviewers:


    Doug Acheson
    Eglin Ayson
    Marc Barr, SIGGRAPH 2000 sigKIDS Chair Debi Barrett-Hayes
    Ted Brown
    Glenn Campbell
    Huguette Chesnais
    Tim Comolli
    Steve Cunningham
    Dena Elisabeth Eber
    Frank Gladstone
    Scott Grissom
    Mk Haley
    Tim Harrington
    Kristy Higby
    Pam Hogarth
    Karl Hook
    Laurie Howard
    Debra Howes
    Paras Kaul
    Nancy Krebsbach
    John MacIntosh
    Francis Marchese
    James Mohler
    J. Michael Moshell
    Jacki Morie
    Mark Ollila
    Jonah Peretti
    Maria Roussou
    Steve Schain
    Evelyn Seubert
    Chris Stapleton
    Karen Sullivan
    Ami Sun
    Scott Wilson
    Rosalee Wolfe

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