Barrett, Joanne

(Joanne R. Barrett)

PERSONAL: Born in RI; father in sales; mother a homemaker; children: Reilly. Education: Providence College, B.A. (cum laude), 1982; Georgetown University, M.P.P., 1990.

ADDRESSES: Office—Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, 9101 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20815.

CAREER: Snavely, King & Associates, research analyst, 1982–84; Marsh & McLennan, Inc., structured settlements analyst, 1984–85; Allied Systems Institute, research assistant and programmer, 1985–86; Synectics for Management Decisions, Inc., microcomputer specialist, 1986–92; U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, personal computer specialist, 1992–96; Holton-Arms School, teacher of computer science, 1996–98; Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, Bethesda, MD, middle-school teacher and computer coordinator, 1998–. Junior varsity volleyball coach at a private school, 1990–96.

WRITINGS:

Teaching and Learning about Computers: A Classroom Guide for Teachers, Librarians, Media Specialists, and Students, Scarecrow Press (Lanham, MD), 2002.

Contributor to textbooks; contributor to periodicals, including Learning and Leading with Technology and Multimedia Schools,

SIDELIGHTS: Joanne Barrett told CA: "I wrote my book because as a computer teacher I was unable to find a textbook that would help my students in all the dimensions of computer science that I was interested in. Many of the books provide exercises that were of interest to boys and very few girls. For instance, there were spreadsheet assignments that calculated miles per gallon for race cars or baseball batting averages. While some adolescent girls find those topics interesting, most do not. I wanted to try to create a book that was gender neutral. The digital divide is wide enough without adding gender to the causes.

"In addition, I had notes spanning eight years of teaching and twenty years as a programmer. While applications come and go, the logic behind them remains, and I wanted a book to reflect the tides of the technology industry."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Computers in Libraries, October, 2003, Kimberly Shigo, review of Teaching and Learning about Computers: A Classroom Guide for Teachers, Librarians, Media Specialists, and Students, p. 45.

School Library Journal, October, 2003, Mary R. Hofmann, review of Teaching and Learning about Computers, p. 211.