Technology Autobiography

When my kids (that is, my students) ask me if I have a Myspace account, I feel ethically compelled to look them in the eye and say, "No; I am too old for Myspace." The sad truth is, however, that not only do I have a fairly well-manicured Myspace account, but also that I am so addicted to Myspace, I cannot bear to close my account. Not even the looming threat of my students seeing my smiling face and all my personal life hanging out like electronic laundry can tear me from the network. It's pathetic. But it also reinforces how close I am to being my students' peer: not just in raw years, but also to the generation of the "natural born" technology specialist. The digital wiz. The computer geek, who is no geek at all, but just a regular person lucky enough to be born in the 1980s or later. A child of the Information Age.

I remember computers as we used them when I was in school. Because I was artistic at an early age, I remember being fascinated by a rather primitive version of Microsoft Paint. Of course all our computers back then were Apple computers. The beige, green-screened kind. We played "Driver" and "Oregon Trail" for fun. For academics, we were challenged to memorize the letters, numbers, and various punctuation marks on the keyboard - some utterly useless infomormation I'm not sure I could even do now unless I consciously followed my fingers.

When my father was in law school, I remember his Word Processor. Hardly a computer at all - more a glorified typewriter - it punched out stacks upon stacks of legal documents, which required de-edging along symmetrical perforated strips. Even then I was fascinated by the technology, and I made confetti out of the printer left-overs.

Then I remember our first home computer. Delight of delights - I painted pictures on Microsoft Paint, played countless trivia games, improved my Solitaire and Free-Cell skills to champion status. And of course there were always the book reports and typed papers. It wasn't until late junior high, however, when I remember AOL and chat rooms. I remember posting my always-vociferous political opinions on message boards, unaware of the creeps no doubt lurking throughout cyber-space.

Looking back on my childhood experiences with technology, gives me great insight into how my students perceive their own opportunities for such resources. There was excitement, fascination, and, I suppose, some sense of entitlement, or of acceptance of the natural course of things, and, not doubt, plenty of naivete. Educating students on the dangers and necessary precautions can keep them safe, while harnessing their natural fascination can serve us educators as a tool of engagement for educational purposes.

Since I've been in education, I've forced myself to become even more in touch with techonology, and to learn about advance beyond Microsoft Word, Google, and Webmail. I've found PowerPoint presentations as a superior means of leading class discussion. I've also discovered interactive tools on the program to help engage students. Using the LCD projector has helped too, because the screen is large enough for the entire class to see. With the LCD projector, I've also been able to demonstrate search engines, documentation, paraphrasing, revisions, and editing techniques for my students on the internet and in Word documents. The LCD projector and tablet have been indespensible for me as a language arts teacher.

Finally, my latest discoveries in technology have been two web-based programs that have helped improve my communications with parents. Engrade.com is the online gradebook program I use to record and average my grades. Students and parents are then able to access their own grades (with an ID and password) from any computer that has internet access. Also, I have a classroom website at TeacherWeb.com on which I record the weekly agenda and homework assignments. This is helpful to many families, when the student is working on responsibility skills and the parents like to stay informed.

From this class I hope to gain access to more technologies and teaching strategies that can help me to be a more engaging and effective teacher. I'm excited to make a new digital movie, and brainstorm ways in which I can use this activity with my students. I also look forward to planning how to implement wikkis and flikr with my classes, as I'm always looking for ways to improve my lessons and capture the kids' attention. Computer technology is already something the kids are engaged in; why not turn that engagement toward something meaningful and substantial beyond r u gon out 2 nite?