eduScapes News   This webpage features an archive of announcements, information, and articles related to the eduScapes website and its author-developers: Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson.

Current Situation - What's Goin' On?
Where Are We & What Are We Doing? After a decade of living and working 'on the road' in our motorhome, we are settling down a bit. We are building a mountain retreat, a home in southern Utah just a few miles from the town of Teasdale and Capitol Reef National Park. You can learn more about the area and view plans and photos of the home construction by visiting Three Creeks West (http://eduscapes.com/teasdale/threecreeks/index.htm). We plan to still travel, but now we have a home base and place to store all our stuff. You can get recent news about our activities and travels as well as see a few recent photos at our Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson Update site (http://www.eduscapes.com/lamb/).

Revisit often or sign up for the RSS feed to catch the latest updates.

Summer Session I in 2010 - Online Courses: Looking forward to another Summer session, Annette will teach S603 Electronic Materials for Children and Young Adults (http://eduscapes.com/earth/) and Larry will teach S603 Flash Multimedia (http://eduscapes.com/flash/).

IUPUI: Annette and Larry are both virtual faculty members in the School of Library & Information Science (SLIS) (http://www.slis.iupui.edu/) at Indiana University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) (http://www.iupui.edu/). All of our classes are taught at a distance - - offered online through the Web; therefore, we continue our full-time RV lifestyle. You can learn more about individual classes at Online Course Resources (http://php.indiana.edu/~anlamb/).

January 2010
Article published in Indiana Libraries Journal . This month also saw the latest edition of Indiana Libraries, the Journal of the Indiana Library Federation (ILF) & the Indiana State Library, circulated to members. Philip Orr, Distance Learning Librarian at USI, was guest editor of this issue devoted to distance learning and distance learning librarianship. Our invited article, Addressing Diverse Needs: Differentiation in Distance Learning (2009), was selected as the lead article. L. Johnson & A. Lamb; 28(3), 3-6.

Key Words in Instruction Article. The January issue of School Library Monthly(formerly SLMAM) contained our article titled Interactives: Dynamic Learning Environments. A. Lamb & L. Johnson (Jan. 2010); 26(5), 41-44

December 2009
Article in Teacher Librarian. This month's InfoTech column was entitled The Digital Dog Ate My Notes: Tools and Strategies for 21st Century Research Projects. A. Lamb & L. Johnson (Dec. 2009); 37(2), 77-81 (Access requires login password).

October 2009
InfoTech Column in Teacher Librarian. The October copy contained the concluding segment of our two-part series: Graphic Novels, Digital Comics, and Technology - Enhanced Learning Pt. 2. A. Lamb & L. Johnson (Oct 2009); 37(1), 70-75 (Access requires login password).

June 2009
InfoTech Column in Teacher Librarian. This month's copy contained the first of a two-part series: Graphic Novels, Digital Comics, and Technology - Enhanced Learning Pt. 1. A. Lamb & L. Johnson (June 2009); 36(5), 70-75 (Access requires login password).

Web Award from Kid Scoop. Kid Scoop is an internationally syndicated newspaper page for children that appears in nearly 400 newspapers. It has a circulation of more than 7 million and thousands of people come to the companion website http://www.kidscoop.com. Each week Kid Scoop's librarian, Jim Silverman, selects web sites with quality, educational content and resources that are of interest to kids, parents and educators. June 11th our website was awarded the Kid Scoop "seal of approval" for content that is engaging, informative and valuable for kids and their families.

April 2009
InfoTech Column in Teacher Librarian. This month's issue contained The Potential, The Pitfalls, and The Promise of Multi-user Virtual Environments: Getting a Second Life by A. Lamb and L. Johnson (April 2009); 36(4), 68-72 (Access requires login password). The article examines educational possibilities connected with the use of multi-user virtual environments (MUVE) such as Second Life.

Key Words in Instruction Article. The issue of School Library Media Activities Monthly (SLMAM) contained our article: Wikis and Collaborative Inquiry. Lamb, A. and L. Johnson (April 2009); XXV(8), 48-51.

February 2009
Teacher Librarian Article. In February, our Info Tech article was titled Web Feeds Delivered to your Digital Doorstep. It discussed the use of web feeds and information aggregators in education. Lamb, A. and L. Johnson (Feb. 2009); 36(3), 66-70 (Access requires login password).

October 2008
InfoTech Column in Teacher Librarian.The second part of our two-part series was published in Teacher Librarian: Caldecott Connections, Pt 2: Visual Storytelling Across the Curriculum by A. Lamb and L. Johnson (Oct. 2008); 36(1), 67-71 (Access requires login password).

August 2008
Best of NECC Presentations. Again this year, we were pleased to learn that two workshops were selected as "Best of NECC" out of the 115 delivered in San Antonio (June 29-July 2). Selection criteria included quantitative and qualitative measures of enrollment, participant evaluations, relevancy, and overall audience appeal. You can access the workshop materials online at(1) Digital Comics, Graphic Novels, Sequential Art, and Technology-enhanced Learning (http://eduscapes.com/sessions/comics/) and (2) Wiki World: Collaborative Learning through Technology (http://eduscapes.com/sessions/wiki/). NECC 2009 is scheduled June 28 to July 1 in Washington D.C.

June 2008
Article in Teacher Librarian. The first installment of a two-part series was published in Teacher Librarian: Caldecott Connections, Pt 1: Illustrations, Illustrators, and Technology by A. Lamb and L. Johnson (Access requires login password); 35(5), 67-71. The article presents several classroom activities involving books that have won the American Library Association's (ALA) Caldecott Medal; lessons related to the interpretation of children's book illustrations, illustration tools and techniques, and illustrators themselves are suggested.

April 2008
InfoTech Column in Teacher Librarian. This month's article was The Virtual Teacher Librarian: Establishing and Maintaining an Effective Web Presence (Access Requires login password); 35(4), 69-71. The article suggested beginning with the selection of services that can be provided digitally, such as general library orientation, and examining which services could be made available continuously, such as tutorials covering frequently asked questions and common problems. Encouraging communication and interaction, coordinating collaborative projects, and modeling innovation were also advised.

Website Traffic. It has been a few years(Jan 2006, below) since we have tallied up the statistics on our family of website; we have a number of domain names (sites) including e-Scrapbooking, 42explore / 42explore2, and Virtual inquiry - all found at the eduScapes entry point. A quick check of totals for this month showed that we had over 1.5 million visits, 11.25 million hits, and more than 8 billion KBs were downloaded. Use of the site continues to increase.

February 2008
Article on Digital Photography in Teacher Librarian. Our InfoTech column this month was titled Digital Photo Safaris: Authentic Learning Across the Curriculum (Access requires login password); 35(3), 53-56 We gave our readers tips on how to choose a camera, compose quality photographs, and create engaging projects that go beyond the standards to promote a passion for learning.

 

December 2007
Part 2 of Article about Video and the Web. Our InfoTech article for Teacher Librarian this month was Video and the Web, Part 2: Sharing and Social Networking (Access requires login password); 35(2), 55-58. This segment focused on the educational applications of sharing video via the Web.

October 2007
InfoTech Article about Video and the Web. Our InfoTech article for Teacher Librarian this month was Video and the Web, Part 1: More than Flickers on the Screen. (Access requires login password); 35(1), 53-56. The article examines the role of teacher-librarians in helping students and their teachers make effective and efficient use of videos in teaching.

August 2007
Again - Best of NECC! Received notification this month that Annette and Larry's workshop, E-scrapbooking Synergy: Where Natural and Virtual Worlds Meet presented in June at NECC 2007, Atlanta, was selected as a "Best of NECC" event. NECC 2008 is scheduled for June 29 to July 2 in San Antonio, Texas.

July 2007
Information Age Inquiry. Web Designs for Interactive Learning (WDIL) maintained by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Exploratorium and sponsored by the Informal Science Education program of the National Science Foundation has a five-star rating of our Information Age Inquiry course materials (http://virtualinquiry.com/). The reviewer described the website as a "rich collection of resources for developing and teaching information inquiry methods, with an emphasis on technology mediated learning" (http://www.wdil.org/resources/information-age-inquiry/).

June 2007
InfoTech Article about Wikis. This month's InfoTech article in Teacher Librarian is An Information Skills Workout: Wikis and Collaborative Writing. Learn about collaboratively created web sites and how teacher-librarians could use wikis to introduce and reinforce student information skills (Access requires login password); 34(5), 57-59.

April 2007
2nd InfoTech Article on Podcasting. The April issue of Teacher Librarian contained our second installment about podcasting: Podcasting in the School Library, Part 2: Creating Powerful Podcasts with Your Students (Access requires login password); 34(4), 61-64.

March 2007
ISTE's Making It Happen Award. In early March, Annette was a featured speaker at the annual NCCE Conference (Northwest Council for Computer Education) held this year in Spokane, WA. At this always-excellent NW regional event the Executive Director of NCCE, Heidi Rogers presented Annette with ISTE's (International Society for Technology in Education) Making it Happen award; Annette can now wear the pink and black jacket. She was indeed surprised and honored to join a prestigious award recipient group.

Article Published in Medium. Annette's article; Open Doors to Learning: Reading, Writing, and Technology-Rich Learning Across the K12 Curriculum was in the Winter 2007 edition of Medium, the journal of the Washington Library Media Association (WLMA); 31(2), 14-15+30.

February 2007
InfoTech Article About Podcasting in School Libraries. The February issue of Teacher Librarian is out. It contains another of Lamb and Johnson's InfoTech columns; the first of two that are focused on podcast and vodcasts. Podcasting in the School Library, Part 1: Integrating Podcasts and Vodcasts into Teaching and Learning (Access requires login password); 34(3), 54-57. This segment focuses on explaining about podcasts and vodcasts and how they can be used. The next issue will have Part 2 that tells how they are made.

Article Published in Taproot. We also had a co-authored article: Geocaching With Kids: Activate the Learning Environment in the Fall / Winter edition; 16(2), 20-21 of Taproot, a publication of The Coalition for Education in the Outdoors.

January 2007
Key Words in Instruction Article in SLMAM. In the January issue of School Library Media Activities Monthly, we have an article titled Social Technology and Social Networks; 23(5), 40-44.

December 2006
InfoTech Article About Digital Music Technologies. The December issue of Teacher Librarian contained another of our InfoTech columns, this one focused on digital technologies for exploring, infusing, and creating music: Turn Up the Music with Digital Technologies (Access requires login password); 34(2), 55-58.

November 2006
Article in the Media Spectrum. Annette's article, Re-imagine, Rejuvenate, Renew: Beyond Library Media Specialist 2.0 was published in the Michigan Association for Media in Education's (MAME) Media Spectrum; 22(2), 24-28.

October 2006
Article Published on Social Technologies. The October issue of Teacher Librarian contained our InfoTech column focused on social technologies: Want to be My "Friend"? What You Need to Know about Social Technologies (Access requires login password); 34(1), 55-57.

August 2006
Once Again - Best of NECC. Received notification this month that Annette's workshop, Extreme Web Site Makeover: Javascript, CSS, and Multimedia presented in June at NECC 2006, San Diego, has been selected as a "Best of NECC" event.

June 2006
InfoTech Article on Open Source Software. The June issue of Teacher Librarian published our article, Open Source Software in School Libraries (Online database access requires login); 33(5), 55-57.

May 2006
Cover Article in School Library Media Activities Monthly. Our second-part article installment titled Blogs and Blogging, Part II was published as a SLMAM cover story this month; (22)9, 40-44.

Online Article for Educators' Spotlight Digest. Also our article, Turning Fiascos into Fiestas: Building Successful Inquiry Experiences, was published in the Spring / Summer edition of Educators’ Spotlight Digest, an online publication of S.O.S. for Information Literacy, a project of Syracuse University's Center for Digital Literacy in collaboration with the American Association of School Librarians and funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This article is about meta-cognitive scaffolding in building successful inquiry activities.

April 2006
Info Tech Article Published in Teacher Librarian. In April 2006, the first in a series of articles written by Annette and Larry for the Info Tech column of Teacher Librarian was published. The article was titled Flash: Engaging Learners Through Animation, Interaction, and Multimedia; (33)4, 54-56. Look for our continued installments in each edition of The Teacher Librarian.

Article in School Library Media Activities Monthly. Annette and Larry's first of two articles on the use of blogs and blogging in education was published in the April edition of School Library Activities Monthly - - Blogs and Blogging, Part I; (22)8, 40-43.

March 2006
High National Ranking for IU SLIS Programs. The Indiana University School of Library and Information Science was ranked as tied for seventh place by the U.S. News & World Report's in "America's Best Graduate Schools." The law librarianship program ranked fourth overall, while digital librarianship, information systems, and the school library media program placed eighth in the nation. Read more about this news of our programs at http://www.slis.indiana.edu/news/story.php?story_id=1179.

February 2006
Series of Articles on Professional Development. Annette has authored a series of articles for Virginia's PBS TeacherLine. Throughout the series she is employing the theme of the PROMISE of professional development. Learn more by connecting to http://www.virginiateacherline.org/ProvDevAdmin/.

January 2006
Online Blue Ribbon Certification Program. The first of the new year marked the roll-out by our Dean, Danny Callison, of IUPUI-SLIS's Online Blue Ribbon Certification program for a School Library Media Specialist. Beginning in Fall 2006, any qualified teacher can complete the courses needed to meet the Indiana Professional Standards Board requirements, NCATE certification requirements and AASL requirements. All courses will be offered online; there are no face-to-face meetings and courses are designed to meet the certification requirements for a school media specialist in ANY of the 50 states.

More than Half a Million Visitors each Month. January statistics for the eduScapes websites provided high totals. In one month, eduScapes, 42eXplore / 42eXplore2, and E-scrapbooking had over 10.2 million hits, 88.88 million KBytes downloaded, and more than 568 thousand visitors.

Weekly Link Award. January 8-14, 2006, eduScapes was awarded the "Weekly Link Award" from Germany's Linksgiving.com. This award has been given to one website every Sunday, since January 2002; an online resource that is judged for originality of concept, easiness of navigation, pleasant design, clarity and completeness of information, and browser-independent accessibility.

November 2005
Annette's First Podcast. Kathy Schrock met up with Annette Lamb at the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference (Nov. 29-30th) in Nashua NH, where both were presenting. Kathy asked Annette, "What is your opinion of students turning to Google or Wikipedia as their first source for information?" Hear her informative answer from Kathy's Podcasts webpage.

Streamed Video of Annette's Keynote Address. You can view the streaming video from Annette's keynote address at that same conference, Transforming Classrooms: Using Assessment Results to Enrich the Learning Environment, at http://www.nhcmtc.org/2005/New_Streaming.html.

September 2005
Site of the Day at TechLearning. On September 12, 2005, TechLearning named eduScapes as its "Site of the Day." Read about it at http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=169400436.

Year Seven at eduScapes: Our website just passed its seven-year anniversary; the original eduScapes resource was created in August of 1998. Today it has grown to encompass a "family of websites" bringing together the domains of 42explore and E-scrapbooking with eduScapes. This past year (Sept '04-Aug '05), the eduScapes group had almost six million visitors (5,950,887) who downloaded more than 683 million KBytes of information. During the twelve-month period, the websites received over 87 million hits.

June 2005
TeacherNet Article Online. Writer for TeacherNet, E.M. Pagliery interviewed Annette on the topic of blogs and blogging (http://escrapbooking.com/blogging/index.htm). TeacherNet is associated with Highlights Magazine for Children. You can read the article online at http://www.teachernet.com/htm/blogs.htm.

EduHound Weekly's Spotlight Site of the Week. June 16th, the EduHound Weekly (http://www.eduhound.com/ewarchives/061605.html) featured our new website E-scrapbooking (http://escrapbooking.com/) as their site of the week.

March 2005
LLG Welcomes New Team Member: Dale Christine joins our Lamb Learning Group team. Dale, another former Midwesterner, has extensive experience and skills in photography, digital imaging, and computer graphics and will spearhead future expansion and utilization of our growing image collections. Stay tuned for new features.

February 2005
Newest Website Feature: This month saw the "roll out" of a new member of our website family. The E-scrapbooking project has been under development for several weeks, and many added features are being planned and developed for future months. The "E" in E-scrapbooking stands for electronic, educational, experiential, engaging, and expressions. Moreover e-scrapbooks are tools for reflecting on ideas and sharing perspectives. Check it out - - there is a lot there already . . . (http://escrapbooking.com/).

January 2005
Interview Online:Annette was recently interviewed by Katie Mitchell, California League of Middle Schools. You can read the story at "Tech Thoughts from the Road" (http://www.clms.net/enews/clms/eNews1204online.htm#tech). Note that we never did make it to Texas this year!

School Library Journal article: Debra Lau Whelen's cover story, What Grad Schools Can Do for You (Jan. 2005; 51(1), 42), contained some great coverage of the School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University at Indianapolis (IUPUI). The article focused on several collaborative initiatives between SLIS and area school media specialists. Included was an interview segment with Annette and Larry, and a photo of Daniel Callison, Lesley Preddy, and Kym Kramer was featured. Access of the complete article http://search.epnet.com.proxy.ulib.iupui.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,url,uid&db=afh&an=15630309

Education Digest, The:In the January 2005 issue; 20(5), the Caught on the Web column focused on "Pathfinders: Library Guides to Research." Two of the seven web resources cited were from our group: 42eXplore: Thematic Pathfinders for All Ages http://42explore.com/ and Designing Pathfinders for Children and Young Adults http://www.eduscapes.com/earth/path3.html. Find The Education Digest online at http://www.eddigest.com/.

November 2004
"Quirky? - You Got That Right!" The November E-Line newsletter from J. Jones and EMCK (Educational Media & Consulting of KY) featured us and our teaching roles; visit What is a Teacher? at http://www.emck.net/eline/04_11_12.htm.

Tech Thoughts from the Road. The November / December issue of Middle Level News, the e-newsletter of the California League of Middle Schools, featured an interview article with Annette. You can read the article online at http://www.clms.net/enews/clms/eNews1204online.htm#tech.

October 2004
New "High Water Marks." Over the summer, traffic at our website is less than in the traditional school year months. Correspondingly every October brings new records. This month the website had more than 730,300 thousand visitors, over 10.2 million hits, and 78.4 million KBytes were downloaded. That is a sizeable increase from the 3.4 million hits, 509,450 visitors, and 29.9 million KBytes of one year ago (October '03).

September 2004
Six Years of eduScapes: Our website just passed its six-year anniversary - - created in August of 1998. You can view some of its evolution at the Wayback Machine Internet Archive at http://web.archive.org/web/*/eduscapes.com. This past year (Sept '03-Aug '04), eduScapes had over 3.6 million visitors who downloaded more than 442.6 million KBytes of information. During the same time period, the site received over 54 million hits.

August 2004
Best of NECC: Two workshops presented at June's National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2004/, (1) Meeting the Needs of All Children: Success through Differentiation and Technology by Annette and (2) From Takeoff to Landing: Strategies for Successful Online Courses by both of us were selected in the "Top 30 - Best of NECC." The criteria for selection involved quantitative and qualitative evaluation of factors such as enrollments, participant evaluations, relevancy of the topic, and overall audience appeal. Given the fact that each year NECC attracts some of the best educational technology presenters - - more than 140 workshops were delivered this year, we are proud of this accomplishment and recognition.

June 2004
Reading Rockets: WETA's Reading Rockets (http://www.readingrockets.org/) selected a portion of our "Audiobooks" section within Information Inquiry for Teachers for inclusion in their national multimedia project (http://www.readingrockets.org/article.php?ID=443). Reading Rockets, funded from the U.S. Dept. of Education's Office of Special Education Programs, is directed to helping young kids learn to read.

May 2004
Website Use Again Soars: This month resets our "high water mark." The entire website (Referred to as eduScapes) has now been divided into three sections (42eXplore subdivided in April) to keep the access times for our resources at a speedy rate. The total number of hits at all sections of eduScapes reached more than 7.2 million for the month; 232 thousand hits every day. The total number of KBytes of information downloaded exceeded 56.6 million. Providing an accurate count of visitors is more difficult. We have statistics for all three sections. Recognizing that a visitor might theoretically access all three sections in one session, we are adopting a "conservative approach" for reporting by tracking the highest number of visits at any one section of the website. The total number of visitors recorded ranged from 274,514 to 419,212 and 446,747 for the month; so we are sure that a minimum daily average for the month was 14,400 visitors.

March 2004
Talking Hands Award: Talking Hands (http://www.faeriekeeper.net/talking.htm) recognized Information Architecture for the Web (http://eduscapes.com/arch/index.html), one of our online course materials web-sections. The Laudation (http://www.faeriekeeper.net/20041stqtr.htm) was the result of nomination by two or more website visitors followed by review by an international team of judges.

Reading Online Article: Berhane Teclehaimanot and Annette Lamb co-authored an article featured in the March/April issue of Reading Online; 7(4) published by the International Reading Association. The article is "Reading, Technology, and Inquiry-based Learning through Literature-rich WebQuests" and is available at http://www.readingonline.org/articles/art_index.asp?HREF=teclehaimanot /index.html.

Website Sections Featured: Education portal, E Learning Europa, featured two sections of our website, Teacher Tap and Literature Learning Ladders in "Reading: An On-line Pleasure" at http://www.elearningeuropa.info/doc.php?lng=1&id=4806&doclng=1&p1=1&p3=1.

February 2004
NCCE Interview Online: An interview of Annette was conducted in December 2003 and has now been posted online by the Northwest Council of Computer Education (NCCE). Visit "Dr. Annette Lamb Speaks Out" at http://www.ncce.org/newsletters/interviews/LambInterview.html.

Website Use Soars: The month of February set a new high mark for our website use; eduScapes / 42eXplore surpassed 4.75 million hits for an average of almost 164 thousand each day. More than 49 million KBytes were downloaded. February visitors to eduScapes totaled over 305 thousand or 10,539 per day; visitors at 42eXplore were more than 352 thousand for an average of 12,156 per day. This new crest must have been due to the extra day in this leap year calendar month.

Website Additions in Literature Ladders: A new webpage has been added to the Caldecott section. Don't miss "The Man Who Walked Between The Towers "(http://eduscapes.com/caldecott/04ca.html), the 2004 award-winning book written and illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein. Also visit another new webpage for "Tale of Despereaux" (http://eduscapes.com/newbery/04a.htm), this year's Newbery Award winner written by Kate DiCamillo.

January 2004
Website Recognized! In January the Innovative Teaching Center, College of Southern Maryland - La Plata Campus cited the Multimedia Seeds resource (http://www.eduscapes.com/seeds/) as its "Link of the Month" and featured it at their website (http://www.frc.csm.cc.md.us/).

Website Traffic Still Climbing: Visitors to our website(s) set a new record in January. During the month our two locations, eduScapes and 42eXplore, had over 3.75 million hits (An average of 122,298 each day) and more than 31 million KBytes were downloaded. Over 245 thousand visitors, that's 7,917 per day, came to eduScapes. More than 269 thousand people visited 42eXplore, 8,701 per day.

Teacher Tap Revised / Expanded: We have made major revisions and updates to the award-winning Teacher Tap (http://eduscapes.com/tap) section of our website. You will find that we have developed and added many new topics for 2004!

Technology-Rich Learning Section: A new website section, Technology-Rich Learning (TLR - http://eduscapes.com/trl), has been developed and placed online early in January.

October 2003
Website Record: This month saw traffic at our website(s) reach an all-time-high level. Our entire website had over 3.4 million hits, more than 509,450 visits, and almost 29.9 million KBytes downloaded during the month. That's an average of over 111 thousand hits and more than 16.6 thousand visits each day.

Website Award: In October, we received notification that a team independent reviewers - a group of teachers had evaluated our website for Schoolzone (United Kingdom). As a result, eduScapes was given their "Highly Recommended" rating for sites of "special educational merit." Schoolzone's only higher award is reserved for sites judged to be directly relevant to the UK national curriculum. You can see a summary of this and other awards and accolades at About the eduScapes Site (http://eduscapes.com/about.htm).

August 2003
College & University Media Review Article: An article authored by Annette, Larry, and colleague, Berhane Teclehaimanot of the University of Toledo, was published in the Spring/Summer 2003 issue of the professional journal from the Consortium of College and University Media Centers (CCUMC). It was titled "Academic Technology: The Convergence of Diverse Disciplines" (http://www.indiana.edu/%7Eccumc/pubs/Review/v9n2.html) 9(2).

Educational Technology Magazine Article: Annette's article titled "Extreme Thinking: Transforming Traditional Student Projects into Effective Learning Environments" was published in the July-August 2003 issue of Educational Technology Magazine (http://www.bookstoread.com/etp/), 43(4) 31-40.

July 2003
Presentation Webcast: One of Annette's sessions at the recent National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) (http://center.uoregon.edu/NECC/NECC2003/) was webcast on July 2, 2003. You can access the streamed video program in an archived format at Video on Demand from MINDS Interactive Learning Cooperative. This archival copy will be available until January 15, 2004 (Check - This program was still accessible in February 2004) at http://member.minds.tv/neccschedule.asp. Scroll to bottom of the menu page to find Annette's session: "Join the Beam Team: New Frontiers in Teaching and Learning."

Indiana University SLIS News: A recent online article (June 24, 2003) was devoted to Annette Lamb. You can read "Technology Rolls Into Education Where Rubber Meets The Road" at http://www.slis.indiana.edu/news/story.php?story_id=665.

May 2003
Website Rating: This website received an A+ rating (May 13, 2003) from Education World (http://www.education-world.com) for "resources and strategies for linking the Net to learning" for K--12 grade levels and also in the professional (development) area. Thanks to them for critiquing our site! You can read their entire site review of eduScapes online at http://www.education-world.com/awards/2003/r0503-13.shtml.

Search Engine Change: In May, we installed the Google search engine for our site (http://eduscapes.com/search.htm). Because of the dual domains that now house our entire resource (See more below: March 2003), it is necessary to search the correct web section, either the main eduScapes section or the burgeoning 42eXplore project site. Pardon any confusion over this separation, but since we have instituted the additional domain section - - the site(s) has not experienced any significant downtime!

April 2003
DataBus Article: An invited article by Larry and Annette was published in the April 2003 edition of DataBus, the journal of the California Educational Technology Professionals Association (CEPTA) (http://www.cetpa-k12.org/). It was titled "Portals: Rabbit Holes to Grand Gateways", 2003(2) 8-9.

Personal Information: We have organized and created a new web-section about our life, work, and play. It is called "Annette Lamb & Larry Johnson: Educators & Mobile Mavericks" (http://eduscapes.com/lamb) It will feature seasonal updates with both photographs and a bit of information. It can also be accessed directly, through Annette's IUPUI classes, and from the Mobile Mavericks section>

March 2003
Adventures with Flat Stanley: Annette, Arrion, and Flat Stanley recently traveled to China, South Korea, and Japan. Journey along with their archived reports at the Flat Stanley project (http://eduscapes.com/flat/)!

Website Changes: March 2003 found the traffic to our site reaching very high levels. In order to better serve our visitors and hopefully provide a more stable and improved site, we divided it into two separate domains - eduScapes (http://eduscapes.com) and 42eXplore (http://42explore.com). All web sections other than the 42eXplore projects (Literature Ladders, NatureScapes, Teacher Tap, Activate E-Journal, Multimedia Seeds, Mobile Mavericks, Lamb Learning Group, and Vision to Action) still remain at the eduScapes domain.

September 2002
Website Down: During late summer we experienced some web server problems, but we're stable again. If you'd like to read the story, click here...