Yeah, I stole that title from my ex
favorite cigarette brand but when you think about technology, what a journey it
has been.
I recently finished reading a book by
Erma Bombeck, “A Marriage Made in Heaven or Too Tired for an Affair”. This great read was a treasure found at Half
Priced Books, and details her journey from engaged, to married raising kids, to
the first moments of empty nesters.
I
took great delight in the chapter on technology. In a section of the book labeled 1979, with a
chapter title “Technology’s Coming!
Technology’s Coming!” Erma and her husband have purchased their first
VCR. They are going out to dinner on a
Friday night and want to record “Dallas” (what everyone watched on Friday nights).
You know that joke about not knowing how to set the time on the VCR…well,
they spent so much time trying to figure it all out, that when Dallas came on
they thought they were recording; as it
turned out, they were just watching it and went to dinner when it was
over. I had a similar story with my parents. They bought a VCR so that they would have a
clock in the family room. They had no
idea what to do with the machine otherwise until I introduced them to a little “mom
and pop” video store next to one of their favorite pizza shops. Then the fun started.
I was the coolest kid in my dorm cuz I
had an electric typewriter.
I remember my father setting up his
first computer in the basement. You had
to enter prompts after the C:\ and I
had a list of steps to follow to get to the word processing program. I told my father: “This computer thing is
never gonna last.” I guess I missed that one!
I remember graduating from college and
getting my first job. I began to save
money so I could buy a stereo with a CD player.
It was one of those all in one deals; turn table, dual cassette deck,
am/fm radio and cd player. I had seen
the writing on the wall and knew that CD’s were the up and coming technology. I was sooo ahead of the curve!
After 2 years in the work world, I
returned to school and boy that computer thing was really important as I began
to write papers for my Master’s Degree in Education. I love the sound of a good dot matrix
printer! I still have documents in my portfolio with lesson plans printed with
those little dots.
After another 2 years, I landed my first
full time teaching job. I had 2 old (at
least I perceived them to be old) Apple IIe computers in my classroom. I had 5 ¼ inch floppy discs with math games and
Oregon Trail. The lighting of the screen
was green. Green on black, no other
color; it was one step above the Light Bright game. (Google it if you don’t
remember or should I say aren’t old enough to know).
I don’t know how I quite discovered the
computer labs in our building but one day, I stumbled into one and started to
play around. We had a Mac Lab and a PC
lab. The Mac lab was smaller and less
used so it was perfect for me to bring my classes in. I became proficient at all aspects of
ClarisWorks. I had my students using the
draw program to create their own notes about geometric figures. I had them use the draw program to also
design their own t-shirt iron-ons that I took home and printed on my good color
printer. I used the ClarisWorks data
base program to manage paperwork and communications with the teachers of
student I worked with. I was one of the
first teachers to use the email program (I think it was called White Pine) and
I emailed my cousin in England (studying abroad from Case Western
Reserve). It looked like a DOS
program.
As technology was developing, I became
rather proficient at the Microsoft world as well. I used to tell people I was bi-platformal as
I could operate in both the Mac Lab and PC lab.
Eventually, I caught the attention of one of the Media Specialist in our building and she
recruited me to teach teachers technology classes in the Microsoft Office
world. I managed my way through Word
and PowerPoint pretty well. I have
learned a lot about Excel especially from my husband who is “certified” and I think
I am one of the few people who absolutely loves Access.
I love technology! I am not about technology for technology’s
sake but it is such an expansion of the universe. I mean really, this morning I was sitting in
church and I was reading a book. (I read
while my husband and the band rehearse).
The author referenced some guy and his reflection on God. Not knowing who this guy was, I pulled out my
IPhone 4 and googled him. I read about this
person who I had never heard of before. He
had a pretty lengthy Wikipedia page.
It was that instantaneous answer that in another decade I probably would
have been too busy to seek out. I love
being able to pull out my phone and map my way to somewhere.
Most of all, I love having an app that collects
all the blogs I like to read and being
able to share them with people who may also find them valuable. I was in a presentation one day and the
speaker referenced something that I have never forgotten. I believe the reference was made about Chris
Anderson’s view of innovation (He’s the “curator “of the TED TALKS). In an article
he wrote for Wired Magazine he talks about the kinds of people involved in
innovation. Excerpted from Wired article
(TED Curator Chris Anderson on Crowd Accelerated Innovation BY CHRIS ANDERSON 12.27.10):
[Anderson talks about these people]:
- The trend-spotter, who finds a promising innovation early.
- The evangelist, who passionately makes the case for idea X or person Y.
- The superspreader, who broadcasts innovations to a larger group.
- The skeptic, who keeps the conversation honest.
- General participants, who show up, comment honestly, and learn.
I AM A SUPERSPREADER. I learn something and try to match it up to people who can use it.
Where will technology take me
tomorrow?...A long way baby!
