My experience with computers or technology in general is rather limited. Growing up, my house was the last to get the color television, cable, or even a VCR. We never had a computer or any type of gaming system. I am not trying to blame my parents for my stunted technological knowledge, but they didn't feel that those items were essential for the Adameak household. It wasn't until about two years ago that my parents got their first computer, and to this point, they connect to the internet through their phone line. Obviously, as a child, I enjoyed going to my friends' houses because they had evolved from the stone age into a world which included technology.
My first experience with computers involved the use of a Commodore 64. It was used to play Taipan and Castle Wolfenstein. I wouldn't say that it changed my life in any significant manner, although it did manage to occupy my time during the early morning hours. I didn't know the first thing about computers, so I would say that it served my needs at the time quite nicely.
When I got to college, the computer lab was stocked with Apple IIe computers, and I only used them to create documents. Did this alter my life in significant ways? I suppose, in a sense, my life was changed in that I could save my papers on a big floppy disk rather than using a typewriter. I still had trouble abandoning my IBM typewriter due to the fact that there were limited hours for the computer lab. I also felt fairly efficient with the way I was producing papers, and I didn't want to change what had developed into a good system.
When I got out of college I purchased an IBM Aptiva. This computer significantly lightened my wallet at the time, but allowed me to access the internet. The Lotus suite software was used for word processing, and AOL provided my internet access. When I started teaching, I was able to save my teacher files on this computer, and it was easy to revise my work as I improved my craft. I wouldn't say that I spent significant amounts of time using this computer, and in retrospect, I am not sure that the computer was worth the money. My Aptiva now resides in the basement and is home to an assortment of spiders and other creepy crawlers.
Computers have become more significant to me as I have continued in education. I still struggle with the time it takes me to produce quality work on the computer compared to the way that I have been doing work for years. I am sure that this fact will need to change if I intend to stay in education, and that is arguably the main reason that I am in this program.
My son still feels deprived because we had no game systems in the house. Lots of computers but almost no games.
ReplyDeleteYes, you're right, Ryan. Our lives are strangely paralleled. Perhaps you're my technology doppelganger - Ha! Always thrilled to work in an English term! Reading your blog reminds me of a few other things, such as that Lotus software. I don't remember much about it, but I remember using it. I also recall the Castle Wolfenstein - I think it was another one of my brother's games. I still have my old IBM typewriter and on rare occasions still have need to pull it out, especially for those PDFs I have to fill out. I'm sure if/when the correct tape runs out, I'll have to head to Ebay to find that relic. I think technology had a greater impact on me, especially when in the early 90's the high school at which I was teaching purchased its first grading software on 3 1/2 inch floppies. I still remember the pure joy of not having to average my gradebook anymore. Also, the computer made it so much easier to create and edit all my worksheets and tests. I'm sure you are just old enough to remember having to do all that work on the typewriter and then whiting out changes year to year. Yikes, what a pain that was!
ReplyDeleteMy friends all had Sega or Nintendo when I was growing up. When we would play hockey on the Sega at their house they would always check my best player and make their head bleed like on the movie Swingers. I hated my parents at the time, but today I'm grateful that I was forced outside, in hindsight they did me a real service. As far as technology today, I used to struggle to get my work the way I wanted it, but even today I figure it is worth the time because of how easy it is to save for the future and how quickly and easily edits can be made for improvements. They can be done right away in preparation for next year. That is the real time saver for me.
ReplyDeleteThe changes that are going to occur in the next few years are going to be interesting. I have a feeling we will quickly move to the internet for classroom settings instead of the brick and mortar schools that we are used to.
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