Don
Rawitsch, Co-Creator and Principal Designer
"The
original Oregon Trail model was developed in 1971 by
myself and two other college students when we were seniors
at Carleton College in Minnesota. The three of us were completing
our practice teaching in Minneapolis, and they (both math
teachers) were using a computer system in their classes. I
was teaching U.S. history and asked them the fateful question,
"Can't we do something with the computer in my class?" Thus,
The Oregon Trail was born. It will be important to
me that they (Paul Dillenberger and Bill Heinemann) receive
credit for their role. In 1974 I joined MECC and still had
a printout of the program. I installed it on MECC's statewide
computer system and soon all of Minnesota was traveling the
Trail! All of the development work from that time to about
1980 was done by me. Over time, The Oregon Trail was converted
at MECC to 5-1/4 floppy, 3-1/2 floppy, and CD-ROM multimedia
versions by some very talented folks, Wayne Studer being a
key person. The simulation has gone through about a dozen
upgrades over time and became a best seller!"
This information
was collected from a phone interview with Don on 5/10/99
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Wayne
Studor, Designer
"We
weren't in it for the money, because there wasn't much money
back then. We were creating new things, educational things--we
saw the computer as a medium that would get kids excited about
learning. We knew the computer couldn't replace the teacher,
but we wanted them to be excited about learning."
A native
of Virginia and former Teaching Associate at the University
of Minnesota, Wayne Studer worked at MECC and subsequently
The Learning Company from 1983 to 1998. Originally an Editor
at MECC, in 1987 he became an Instructional Designer and later
Project Director. He has designed or co-designed a number
of best-selling and award-winning programs, including the
GeoGraph series, the Time Navigator series, Super Munchers,
the first Macintosh and Windows versions of The Oregon Trail,
and Oregon Trail II. After serving as the Producer of several
reference titles at the Compton's division of The Learning
Company, Studer left the educational computing industry in
1998 and is currently working in the field of Internet website
development. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in English from
the College of William and Mary, and a Ph.D. in American Studies
from the University of Minnesota.
Interview
Wayne began at MECC in 1983 as a software editor and remained
for fifteen years. He worked to develop both the manuals and
the programs. He received his PhD in American Studies in 1984.
In 1987 Wayne became more involved in content and became a
software designer. His initial project was World Geograph,
an effort by California school system to create innovative
software programs which was partly funded by the state of
California. MECC won one of the 5 bids to secure the project.
World Geograph was a database program which allowed
students to manipulate data. Wayne's second major project
involved considerable work on The Oregon Trail.
Before
MECC was created, Don Rawitsch, Paul Dillenburger, Bill Heineman,
all student teachers in a Minneapolis public school, created
the first Oregon Trail using teletype and mainframe
computer. This initial version had no sound or graphics and
was used by 16 students simultaneously using separate terminals
to embark upon this shared experience. Don joined MECC shortly
after the company was founded and brought The Oregon Trail
to the commercial world using mainframe technology. It was
still entirely text-based and ran on Apple II. In 1979 the
microcomputer version, "Elementary Volume 6," was released.
This color version which was released to students around the
United States became first educational "hit" of microcomputing.
MECC then created versions for the Atari, Commodore 64, Radio
Shack in early 1980's, and in 1985 the Apple II version 1.0.
was a stand alone Microcomputer program.
Wayne
worked on the first version for the Macintosh and every subsequent
version. Wagon Train 1848 was designed in 1991 as a
collaborative version of The Oregon Trail, to be run
via ethernet. Each computer was a wagon train--if one wagon
broke down, the students could collaborate to share equipment…or
choose to leave the wagon behind. The students were able to
share information through an ethernet connection and could
communicate with each other via the internet. This version
was extremely expensive for the school market at approximately
$149 for 6 disks. The application was tested with students
in the Bay area but the results were not entirely successful.
Wayne was the designer of the first Windows version of The
Oregon Trail II which was a complete redesign of the original
with a budget of over 1 million dollars. The production schedule
was 1-1/2 years and the product was released in early 1995.
Extensive user studies proved that children and adults alike
enjoyed the program--in fact, 20% of identified users were
adults. Within the first three weeks of publication, the title
began to make money.
If Wayne
were to design any software title, he would choose to design
Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?
Comments
on the current educational software industry:
"The industry became a victim of their own success."
Wayne
believes that the educational software industry has taken
a major step downward from the work produced in the 1970's
and 1980's with the loss of traits such as meticulousness
and care. The movement of companies and industry may account
for this phenomena as budgets and editorial staffs were trimmed
and testing was no longer a priority. Wayne sees the golden
age of educational software design as the 1980's with companies
such as MECC, Broderbund, Sunburst, Apple Multimedia Lab,
and Bank Street where people really believed in what they
were doing and thus were creating innovative, highly educational
software for kids.
This information
was collected from a phone interview with Wayne on 5/8/99
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Others
Craig
Copley:
MECC
contact who might have information on the Oregon Trail. Oldest
MECC employee (worked on the technical side).
Dale LaFrenz:
President and CEO of MECC.
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