Karen Billings





'''This is a work in progress. Help from volunteers will be greatly appreciated.'''

Instructions to Authors and Editors
Here is a rough outline for a Pioneer page. As you create or add to this page, please make appropriate use of main headings (surrounded by == on each side) sub headings (surrounded by === on each side) and, if you feel it to be appropriate, sub sub headings (surrounded by ==== on each side).

1. General demographic types of information such as birth date and place, education, employment, and so on.

2. Setting the scene. This might go all the way back to the pioneer's childhood. Try to capture the essence of how the world was before the pioneer began to do his or her pioneering work. Pay particular attention to the levels of Information and Communication Technology, and their use in education, at the time.

3. Major pioneering efforts and contributions. Try to capture the essence of the pioneer's legacy contributions to the field of ICT in education. Be factual. Provide references if possible.

4. Up close and personal stories about the pioneer. These can be contributed by many different authors. Try to flesh out the pioneer as a person and his or her contributions as part of the overall human endeavor of developing the field of ICT in education.

5. Autobiographic materials written by the pioneer in the past and/or written especially for this IAE-pedia document.

6. Interview. If the pioneer is not deceased, try to gather interview information via face to face meeting, phone, or email. Here are three sample interview questions:


 * Q. Looking back over your pioneering activities, which do you feel best about? What is your legacy?
 * Q. Drawing upon your years of experience and accumulated wisdom, what do you think are some of the very best ways to improve our current informal and formal educational systems?
 * Q. What else do you want to say to today's students, teachers, parents, and other people?

7. References. This includes references to sources of information about the pioneer as well as references to some of the published works or and other activities of the Pioneer.

8. Author or Authors. You are encouraged to include your name as the initial author of the document.

9. Finally, at the very bottom of the page you are creating, on a line all by itself and in double square brackets, enter the text: Category: Pioneer

Up Close and Personal
Comment by Dave Moursund. I got to know Karen Billings when she took some courses in a Summer Institute for teachers that I was running. She was a teacher at Roosevelt Junior High school in Eugene, Oregon. All of my children attended this school, and some had her as a teacher. They fondly remember her as a great teacher!

When microcomputers were first becoming commercially available, Karen bought a Commodore PET. She then had a "PET party" to introduce her friends to her new PET.

Karen and I wrote two books together. (See the References section.) While we were writing the calculator book, she arranged for me to teach the materials to a Junior High School class. This one term, one course of teaching represents my total life experience of teaching at the precollege level. My older son was in the class, but he kept a low profile and did not attempt to embarrass me as I struggled with my teaching at this level.