Stories of 3 books

1. Stories of 3 books Jeanine Meyer Sigma Xi Purchase College

2. Outline • Multimedia student projects, 1996 • Teaching programming using games, 2001 • Creating databases for web applications course, June, 2003. • Discussion • why write a book • publishing process Sigma Xi Purchase College

3. Flashback to early '90s • Multimedia = orchestration of text, images, sound, animation, video, and interactions • Software and hardware made 'desktop' multimedia feasible • Technology solution in search of a problem! • Companies producing multimedia educational products • benefits unclear • Pre-Web Sigma Xi Purchase College

4. Student projects • IBM also producing (at great costs) multimedia titles • Meanwhile, in schools (including elementary schools) teachers guiding their students to use Hypercard and Linkway to produce projects • anecdotally, great results • some research indicating significant benefits • Colleges (and some schools) using higher-powered tools, including Director, Toolbook, others Sigma Xi Purchase College

5. Lost in Atlanta • Dr. Florence Mann, NYC Board of Education, Technology Assistance Centers, on visit to IBM Atlanta • "Teachers need to learn the why along with the how." • I promised a workshop • gathered together group to do it. • Anne Kellerman, Palmer Agnew • friends at IBM Research Sigma Xi Purchase College

6. Workshop • Basics regarding hardware and software • Specific 'generic' projects for students to do • Discussion on assessment, teams, schedule, logistics, etc. → success → led us to consider doing a book Sigma Xi Purchase College

7. Process • Mentor advised us on the publishing process, namely, producing a proposal • description of book, including course(s), competition, unique features • table of contents • chapter format • "A heads and B heads" • 1 to 3 sample chapters • Target publishers • [some] iteration on proposal. This can be long! • Contract • schedule, royalties (more or less standard), some negotiation on work Sigma Xi Purchase College

8. Process, continued • Completed chapters • Technical edit • Copy edit • Layout • Indexing • Marketing copy • Publication Sigma Xi Purchase College

9. Reflection • The book was a cause. • Very badly timed with respect to technology • typical • many of the lessons of the book are independent of technology, but difficult case to make • 'student projects' is how I/we teach Web technologies • Nice achievement • Limited amount of money • Probably helped get full-time tenure track position at Pace University! Sigma Xi Purchase College

10. Next cause: teaching programming • Experience at Pace University (echoed by others) is that the first programming course • attrition high (Nationally about 50% for CS1) • many of remaining are not especially good programmers • many who stay and many who go see programming as dull • not just [too] difficult Sigma Xi Purchase College

11. My experience • To better master Visual Basic, I programmed minesweeper • wrote up tutorial • went to Cathy Dwyer • Planned set of games • rock paper scissors, dice, memory, hangman, cannonball Sigma Xi Purchase College

12. Pilots • Included projects as 'extra credit' and then substantial part of courses • Very positive results • motivation AND achievement • Games involve substantial programming and design of the user interface. • Students push themselves. Students test/play their work. • Very good for variety of students. Sigma Xi Purchase College

13. Finding a publisher • Very slow decision process • may have been internal conflicts • and then got rejected from first and second choice. • Course Technology • not a likely prospect because they had Visual Basic books, including Diane Zaks book with 60% of market • Editor's idea to market this as a project book for the Zaks book Sigma Xi Purchase College

14. Process • Same as before, except we had a developmental editor that helped significantly • They did layout and index • We (Cathy) needed to re-do (re-capture) the screen shots. • Note: much done on manuscripts, not on-line. Sigma Xi Purchase College

15. Reflection • The book was a cause. • We each used the book! • Timing a problem: Visual Basic went to VB.net (very different) • Not much money • Theory: teachers requested desk copy or bought single copy but did not require students to buy. • Frequently get e-mail from students asking for help • Probably got tenure at Pace University based on book, general effort. Sigma Xi Purchase College

16. Current book • Not quite a crusade—I wanted to learn 'server-side', middleware programming • php & MySql (Open Source) and asp & Access (Microsoft) • included systems design topics (entity relationship modeling, process diagrams, storyboards) with programming • Course in Fall, 2001 • successful (partially due to snacks, 9/11, students, student TA, etc.) • Made presentation at conference, followed by request to post materials on site • Approached by one publisher representative who then moved to Charles River Media who offered contract Sigma Xi Purchase College

17. Process • Writing: used charts from course. Wrote 'prose' prior to each class for second offering of the course. Made 12/31/02 deadline • DRAMA: hard disk crashed the day before official contract came! • Technical edit: responded to issues. Help from publisher/editors. • some use of Word change facility, but also printing out hard copy. They claim they will improve figures. • Just completed my approval/response to copy edit. Sigma Xi Purchase College

18. example Sigma Xi Purchase College

19. example Sigma Xi Purchase College

20. Reflection • Kept me busy. • My writing had improved based on previous efforts. • Note: technical reviewer said: book is verbose, but that is a good thing. • Will use book in Spring, 2004. • ???? Sigma Xi Purchase College

21. Issues & Trends • Dog versus dog owner • Book for course/class adoption versus single sale • Project book versus course book with auxiliaries • Books so big that they will kill the family cat • Complex design: inserts, margin notes, etc. Sigma Xi Purchase College

22. Discussion • Why write a book? • Publishing process Sigma Xi Purchase College