The Computer Wasn't in the Basement Anymore

Between 1970 and 2020, I worked within all types of digital environments from plug board computers to large mainframes, to emerging PCs, to the Internet, and to the latest iPhones and handheld devices. I have come to see that these fifty years weren't just about technology but about how events in the larger institutions with which I was affiliated as well as the broader society were integrated into a complex web of interactions that shaped and molded everything. They drove each other and I wanted to understand them all.

My purpose in writing The Computer Wasn't in the Basement Anymore.. is to share my insights, gained from my experience of fifty years, all of which involved some aspect of education technology, and included administrative, instructional and research activities. The title reflects how computer technology, once relegated to out of the way places such as basements, has blossomed with the ubiquity of the Internet, social networking, and smartphones. Computers are now everywhere in every room of every home, office, restaurant, industry, store, school, college, and in our pockets.