ABSTRACT
It was from a stumble that this book began. I never set out to write a book but I did have the assignment to present an academic staff seminar at the University of Alberta. My task was to describe how personal computing (laptops) became adopted as a policy at Methodist Ladies’ College. I was on study leave and so had more time to ponder my topic than usual. Furthermore, the seminar was to be an important trial of my ideas for a keynote paper at an international conference in Australia, on my return from leave. I was looking for a connecting idea to hold the seminar presentation together and the notion of serendipity kept reappearing. Initially I rejected this notion. After all I am a principal who practises strategic thinking! However the more I thought about this the more I was confronted with the fact that I, and my staff, had stumbled onto this major initiative of introducing personal computing. The consequence of this stumble was that laptop computers became compulsory for all students and staff.
