Classroom Teachers: We receive emails from teachers like you every day. They link to us from their classroom pages - like this from Share to Learn and this from Classroom 2.0. And they send us lots of comments as well. We love to hear from you! Here's how you can contact us.
About the Logos: Open Standards, Accessibility, and Open Content
The six logos shown below - and at the bottom of every page on this web site - indicate our commitment to open standards [see below], accessibility [see below], and open content [see below].
It is not uncommon to see notices posted on web sites recommending that visitors to the site use a certain web browser - for example:
Best viewed using Internet Explorer.
What this means is that the web site developer used proprietary code (not open-standard) that only works with a certain browser.
We prefer open standards code because it is not browser-specific - and is therefore open to all users, regardless of which browser they may be using. In addition, open standards code is more compatible with older browsers, it stands a better chance of being supported in the future by new browsers, and it does a better job of meeting the accessibility [see below] needs of disabled users.
We're working to ensure that our site is friendly to the widest range of browsers possible. If you encounter any problems in using this site, please send us an email at . We will do our best to quickly resolve any problems that you identify. Thank you for your help.
We use the World Wide Web Consortium's free HTML Validator [http://validator.w3.org] to check our pages for errors and non-standard code. You can check to see if our HTML coding complies with open standards and is error-free by clicking on the "HTML 4.01" logo at the bottom of each page. The validator will check the page you are viewing, and will instantly provide you with an answer. For example, you can check this page now:
Accessibility
Web Accessibility is, first and foremost, about making the web accessible to people who have physical or cognitive disabilities. Secondarily, it's about making the web work for all of us - and one of the benefits of accessible web sites is that they tend to be more usable for everyone. On the flip side of this argument, web sites that are not accessible are silent (even if unintentional) contributors to the growing Digital Divide [http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/dn/html/anationonline2.htm]. Accessibility is particularly important in education, because learning is driven by access to information and ideas - which, in turn, is a critical ingredient for citizen-participation and job success.
We're doing our best to keep up with new developments in accessibility. Browser technology is evolving rapidly, as are code standards and design techniques. Our goal is to ensure that this site stays current with WAI [http://www.w3.org/WAI/] accessibility guidelines. Having said that, we realize that the current guidelines are neither complete nor comprehensive, and that our implementation of them may be lacking. The real test of a site's accessibility comes when disabled users try to use it. If you are a disabled user, your feedback would be particularly appreciated. You can tell us what you think by emailing us at . We will do our best to incorporate your suggestions, as well as to quickly resolve any problems that you identify. Thank you for your help.
We use the single user version of Bobby [http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp] to check our pages for accessibility problems. You can check to see if our HTML coding complies with WAI [http://www.w3.org/WAI/] accessibility guidelines by clicking on the "AAA Bobby Approved" logo at the bottom of each page. Bobby will check the page you are viewing, and will instantly provide you with an answer. For example, you can check this page now:
Open Content
Open Content licenses are a less restrictive alternative to standard copyright. They are an outgrowth of the free software [http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html] and open source [http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php] movements, which operate under an ethic that includes making content (such as the source code for software programs) "...freely available under liberal licensing terms and with no licensing fees, so that others may take that software...[or content]..., make changes to it, and use or distribute the resulting modified versions as they see fit." [Hecker http://www.hecker.org/writings/setting-up-shop.html]
The CCPL [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0] is not a true Open Content license because it prohibits commercial uses. (This is a limitation that we wanted to impose). It does, however, implement the other key elements of Open Content, namely it allows users to freely (though only for non-commercial purposes) copy, modify, republish and redistribute content, and requires that all redistributions and derivative works be offered to the public under the same licensing terms under which the original source content was offered.
Our purpose for offering our content under these terms is to guarantee free - i.e. "at no cost" - access to this information, and to encourage the unfettered non-commercial use, improvement, republishing and redistribution of information about Textmapping. Our hope is that Textmapping, and information about it, will be developed and improved upon by its users - teachers, researchers and homeschoolers. If this collaborative development model is interesting to you, read about how you can collaborate [http://www.textmapping.org/collaborate.html] with us.
The Open Source model for software development is interesting because it points to the potential of Open Content licenses to drive the development of free, high-quality content. Open Source projects have produced some of the best software running today, including:
the latest operating system from Apple, OS X, which is built around Apple's open source core, Darwin, which in turn uses FreeBSD
the Apache server, which powers the majority of web sites on the internet
the Mozilla web browser, which is the foundation for Netscape Navigator. The Mozilla project has also spawned a new class of leaner, faster open source browsers, such as Phoenix and Chimera.
If you encounter any problems in using this site, or if you simply believe that we are not living up to the standards represented by the logos at the bottom of this page, please send us an email at . We will do our best to quickly resolve any problems that you identify. Thank you for your help.
helpful tips
The six logos shown below - and at the bottom of every page on this web site - indicate our commitment to 
small print 
Use of the information on this web page constitutes acceptance of the terms of the