I have a dilemma, and perhaps you may be able to give me some help.

You see, I don’t think there is very much at all about computers that is not interesting. My dilemma is, how do I summarise and prioritise all of this information and knowledge to fit on a single page of a web site?

This dilemma is not new to me. For all of my life I have been learning. For much of it as a student in formal courses. When I have been required to complete written assignments, I have generally written far more than I needed, and then I had the job of summarising say a 20,000 word essay into the 10,000 word format which was required.

My background is in education. For much of my working career, I have had roles of teacher*, lecturer* and educational administrator in all education and training sectors.

(Clicking on the above links will take you to Ian McKenzie’s resume web site, www.ianmckenzie.name )

The ‘teacher’* in me will never go away. And, I don’t want it to, as I still am involved in, and enjoy teaching*.

(* I have for several years had to struggle with various ‘labels’ such as ‘teacher’, lecturer’, ‘instructor’ and ‘trainer’. All of these terms I believe place undue emphasis on the wrong person in the learning process. The important person in that process is the learner. Each of us as learners has different ‘learning styles’. These styles can be an infinite combination of factors including auditory, visual and kinesthetic. To me anyway, kinesthetic is the most important. I learn best by ‘doing’. With regard to my role in others learning, I like to view myself as a ‘facilitator of learning’, probably more of a mentor or coach as opposed to any of the terms listed above.)

As well as making this site a site at which I am obviously trying to make sales of my products and services, I am also endeavouring to make it educational.

A criticism I have heard often, of articles on computers and the internet to be found at sites on the WWW, is that they are written by computer ‘geeks’ apparently for computer ‘geeks’. People who are not all that computer or internet savvy have difficulty in understanding what has been written. In writing the foregoing pages, I have been consciously wearing my ‘teacher’* hat, trying to explain the issues as simply as I can.

I would like to receive feedback from visitors to this site, especially teachers and students. As a teacher, if you were going to teach a class about the topics I have discussed, what else would you like to see added, or what should be changed? As a student, have I got my message across to you? Is it all clear, or is there something I have discussed that you do not understand?

I would be quite happy to expand this web site, or publish additional web sites to include the knowledge or information required. I also plan to post links to relevant articles that I publish on this site. One that I wrote last week was “Website Design for Dummies”. It can be accessed by clicking on the link.

Please click on my name below to send me an email’

Regards

Ian McKenzie

PS

A note on spelling. The software program I am using to build this web site is NetObjects Fusion®. It is a great program, but it uses US English. I am an Aussie, and I prefer to use Australian English, which on occasions is at variance with that used by our American friends. So generally, I have ignored words that have been underlined in red as spelling errors. However, having said that, I do get annoyed when viewing web sites, bill boards, advertising banners where there are obvious mistakes in spelling, grammar, or anything else. So, if you do come across any typos, grammar or spelling mistakes on this site, I would really appreciate being informed of them.

Thanks

Ian McKenzie