Art Wolinsky's Page

Hi Folks,

I started my teaching career in 1969. In 1999 I started my second life as a consultant. I called myself a technology infusion specialist and helped schools restructure their curriculum to use technology effectively.

Overlapping those two careers is my work with WiredSafety.org. I began my volunteer work with them in 1996 and now that I'm semi-retired, I'm putting a lot more time into keeping kids safe online.

Having worked with computers since 1979, I had a background in running computer bulletin boards, programming, and doing multimedia production which sort of gave me 15 years of on the job training for the Internet.

In 1995 I was a mentor for a project funded with seed money from the National Science Foundation. The project was the Online Internet Institute, an 18 week effort by Internet pioneers and teachers around the country to figure out how to scale up professional development. When the funding ran out, five of us involved in the project felt we had something worth continuing and we turned it into a non-profit foundation.

During my 30 years in the classroom I taught full elementary school, science, math, and computer technology, but my personal view is different. As far as I was concerned, I taught only two things; critical thinking and problem solving. While relating this to a workshop group in 2000, someone stopped me and asked how I made the change from the "sage on the stage to the guide on the side".

My reply was simple, "I never made the change. I've been doing this since 1970. The only thing that has changed is that last week someone actually called me a visionary and thirty years ago I was just a radical nut."

A great deal has transpired in my career since doing that workshop. My knowledge and networking has grown, but my philosophy remains the same. If you want to find out more about my philosophy of teaching and technology infusion, you can check out the material I used in my workshop at the 2000 NECC. Part of that workshop was the feature article that I wrote for the Mar. 1999 issue of Multimedia Schools Magazine.

Earlier this year, I decided that I would begin to cut back on the number of hats I wear and concentrate on a few things. One of those things is WiredSafety. To that end, I began to apply what I have been doing with students and teacher to Internet safety activities. My mantra has been "Cyber Safety through Information Literacy". It's not the "typical" Internet safety training material. I think it takes a unique, but very practical approach to Internet Safety.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns I'd like to hear from you.

Art Wolinsky