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The 70's

My earliest memories of technology begin in the 1970’s in elementary school. When I was in school my mom had THE BEST JOB EVER – she was a school secretary! Of course, this meant that is exactly what I wanted to be. She could type like there was no tomorrow and she got to use cool machines like a Gestetner and a phone that had more than one line! Often I would get to help her copy worksheets for teachers and write phone messages to place in teachers’ mail slots.

In 1978, when I was 10, I got an amazing Christmas present – a typewriter! It was so cool, and now I could be even more like my mom. (even though she got to use a pretty impressive electric typewriter by this time at work, they were way out of the price range for Santa to bring me for Christmas). That same year my brothers got some weird game that was played through the tv called Atari.

The Atari was pretty impressive. It meant hooking up all these cords and playing really cool games like Pong! Who would not want to watch a ball move at the speed of a snail across the tv screen so that you could block it with a rectangle that moved vertically along the side of the “court”? Hours of fun for the whole family. There were some pretty epic Pong battles in our house.

Other technology from my elementary school years included an impressive console tv. There was no remote but I remember getting a “converter” that sat on the top so we didn’t have to turn the dial, there were buttons instead. We also got our first microwave oven that was probably as large as the television and had several dials on the front. I don’t even want to know what kinds of rays were coming out of this beast. We had one rotary dial phone in our house that was wired directly to the wall in the kitchen. As far as music, my dad and mom loved to jive so we had a pretty cool record player and huge speakers in our “fancy” living room.

The 80's

It wasn’t until I entered high school in the 1980’s that the term “technology” and its many meanings really became noticeable in my life. In grade 9 I took Typing 9, which despite my embarrassing mark, has been the one course I am so grateful I took. The ability to touch type has saved me so much time, and has only improved with more computer use. I also took Computer Science in grade 11. The only thing I remember about this course is that we wrote programs to get the computer to add or make a picture of a Christmas tree. In essence, I guess we were writing computer code but I think I just took it because Mr. Sutherland was a really fun teacher.

One of the big things for my friends and me to do was to rent a VCR and videos from the video store. It would cost $20 to rent the machine and four movies. One of our parents would have to come to put down a deposit so we could take the machine home. It wasn’t until the mid-80’s that we got our own VCR at home. The original cost… $500! It would take forever for movies to come out on “tape” and then it cost almost as much to rent them as it did to go to the actual theatre.

1986 was a big year. That was the year I graduated from high school and EXPO 86 was the big news everywhere. Originally my mom bought us each 3-day passes but we quickly realized this was not going to be enough. My friends and I wanted to go every weekend that summer. Lucky for us my brother got a job as a porter at the Hotel Vancouver and he could get us day passes any time we wanted (with a little profit for him of course, LOL). There was so much to take in at this World’s Fair. This was my first encounter with touch screens and IMAX films. The Skytrain was new and was completely automated. Every pavilion had displays with new technology.

I went off to UBC in the fall of 1986 but still was not using a computer. I received a typewriter for graduation from my boyfriend (it may not sound romantic but I was just as excited as I was when I received my first typewriter 8 years earlier). This new machine even had a correct key and a memory. I did my two undergrad degrees with this machine – and as a history and English major, there were a lot of papers! In the late 80’s I was introduced to the first “cell” phone when one of our friends showed up to dinner with this box. We thought it was so cool when it rang at the table. I also was now listening to my Walkman for all my music but didn’t have a CD player yet. I remember making “mixed tapes” from my roommate’s CD collection. There of course were computer labs to use at UBC but I managed to avoid them. I remember feeling very intimidated the one time I accompanied a friend to the computer lab. I was quite happy with my typewriter.

The 90's

I graduated from UBC and started teaching in 1993. This was when computer use became a regular part of my life. Along with my staff reference manual I was handed a small plastic computer disk that said “Chesterman Marks.” I was told to guard this disk and was advised to get a second disk to copy this one to regularly. Hope Secondary was, and still is a Mac school. We had a lab that was used for business and computer classes and three computers available in a staff work room. By 1995 we had Mac Classics in almost every classroom. They were used for word processing and doing our marks on Mac School.

By the late 90's we began to realize that all this "new technology" was not a passing fad. After getting married and buying a house in 1997 my husband and I waited another two years before we purchased our first home computer – a blue eMac – through the employee computer purchase plan. We had started to use e-mail more regularly and even though we had resisted buying a computer for home because it seemed pointless since we had unlimited access at school – we wanted to be able to “browse the internet” at home. Our first internet connection at home was dial up and it was free through our school board. We could now do our marks at home – even though we still needed the disk and had to bring the disk reader home from school to make it work.

In 1997 my husband and I started a Leadership programme at HSS and in 1999 I was elected to the board of directors of the BC Association of Student Activity Advisors. All communication with the board was done through e-mail. Before this time I could have had an e-mail account at school but I did not – I didn’t think I needed one – how silly that seems now. Checking my email became part of my daily routine but I still only checked it once a day. (ok, more in the beginning but no one was sending me anything, LOL)

I didn’t really start to explore the Internet until we purchased that first home computer in 1999. It was very exciting and I would often leap up from watching something on television to check out the website or search something I wanted to know. Because of dial-up this would often take 5 minutes just to get to a site, and in the evenings, when many of us were on our computers, we may not even get on.

In my first two years of teaching I did not have my own classroom space so this limited my teaching tools to what I could push around on a cart. In my third year, due to increased enrollment, 3 portable classrooms were added and I got one of them. Two were brand new and one was a hand-me-down from Boston Bar. It was old, it smelled bad, but it was mine. (I chose to take the older one for good PR but also because the windows faced the mountains while the other two faced the parking lot.) Although the room still had chalkboards I got my own tv/vcr, overhead projector and Mac Classic computer. (I had my own furnace too, which is more of a plus than many people might appreciate.) I used ClarisWorks then Apple Works for word processing and Chicago was my font of choice for worksheets. I stayed in that portable until I left for maternity leave in 2000 – which was good timing as they were putting on an addition to the school which meant a new classroom for me, with lots of upgrades.

The 21st Century

At the start of the 21st Century I had just had my first child and was pretty consumed with motherhood. Our blue eMac computer served us well until 2009 but I did purchase a Macbook Pro in 2006 as I was getting more into digital photography and scrapbooking. Since 2006 our home and professional technology use has exploded. We now have satellite television, a laptop and new 24” iMac at home as well as a Wii, cell phones for my husband, older daughter and me, digital cameras for the three of us plus 2 digital SLRs. My daughter and I have iPod Touches, and my husband “still” uses his Nano. At work I have a Macbook and access to an iPad in the Library. I also regularly use a Smartboard during the two classes that I teach.

Since 2005 I have been an active participant in different forms of social networking, blogs and web site creation. I began a personal blog in 2005 and joined the world of Facebook in 2006. I actually tried to “quit” Facebook but was amazed at how disconnected I felt. It has become an important form of communication, and for some, their only form of communication. I also have a Facebook account and page for communication with my students. This is a tricky subject for some, but I try to just keep it for posting information, especially for my Leadership students. If I send a message for them to pass on to their “friends” the word gets out – I can’t beat that any other way. I began my class blog in 2010 which has been an awesome experience. I cannot believe the time I have saved myself just in not having to send work to the office for absent students. My students can access PDFs of handouts, schedules and sometimes I will also include powerpoints for important notes I want to be sure everyone has. I have tried using bookmarking sites like Delicious but I found I forgot about those bookmarks even more that the ones I just had on my own computer. My new bookmarking obsession is Pinterest. I am typical of many “pinners” in that I pin crafts and things for my home, but I am also now pinning ideas for the library, teaching ideas, and lessons for my students. I am finding the visual nature of Pinterest very effective for me and I am actually referring back to my pins, which is the true test of its success.

Technology and the Internet have become an important form and source of entertainment in my life. We subscribe to Netflix, which I can watch on any of my computers or through our Wii. We purchase our music, audio books, ebooks (for my daughter’s Kobo), and television shows through iTunes. We also purchase books and movies online from sources like Amazon and Chapters/Indigo. I regularly use YouTube for material for lessons or to share inspiring stories on Facebook or on one of my blogs or web sites. My husband also purchases his umpiring equipment online and we do all of our travel arrangements and banking online. We redeem points on our customer appreciation cards or Airmiles online as well. I love that we can check things out like the weather, travel advisories, hours of operation or how much we are allowed to bring back when we shop across the border. I actually get frustrated if I have to phone or can’t find the information on a company’s web site.

One of my hobbies is scrapbooking and although I still love the tactile nature of the craft I am beginning to use more digital elements and create photo books through sites like Picaboo. I love having our travel photos so accessible on our computer so that I can make copies, send a photo in an email, or use them for assignments.

I started working on my Teacher-Librarian diploma in the fall of 2010. This of course has meant adding more online and technology skills to my repertoire. I have learned about and created a wiki, I understand the workings of sites like Wikipedia and how Google and Yahoo conduct their searches. I am also learning so much from “virtually” meeting classmates who share their ideas and successes. I admit that I still prefer meeting people face to face but this has been a great way for me to continue my education, something that would not be possible for me without the online option unless I took a leave

Computer and online tools are a part of my daily life. My day begins with my coffee in front of the computer checking my email, news updates, the weather, Facebook, my daily blog reads and updating my work and family calendar. Just this past week my family gathered around the computer each morning waiting to hear if our schools were closed because of the weather. We had tabs with the radio station, our district web site and Facebook – which always had the news first. ☺ The technology I thought I could avoid in the early 90’s is an essential part of my life today. Do I still fear losing that human contact? Sometimes. Are there still things I am resisting? Yes – eReaders for one. The great thing is, the more I learn and play with the technology, the more excited I get. This Prezi is a perfect example. This was the first time I have used this tool but I am now so excited to use it with and for my students.

There are so many more things I want to learn about and try in the future. Right now I am resisting eReaders but I have a feeling this resistance has a few cracks. I am also excited to try things like Nings, Poscasts, Skype and Voice Threads. I see so many applications for these tools both in my classroom and the library. One of my main technology goals over the next year is to get more of my staff on board with blogs and other forms of social networking in their classrooms. My principal and vice-principal, have both approached me about helping them set up blogs and my recent dive into the world of Twitter has shown me how much great educational conversation is going on every minute. I am excited for others to learn from this and share my enthusiasm.

I believe my biggest challenge with technology will be wanting to do it all. I need to remember to sometimes take baby steps and that I don’t need to try everything out there – although it is very tempting. I also know, thanks to this course, this assignment, and my diploma program, that I will not stop taking courses related to technology and web applications once I have finished the requirements for my diploma. There is just so much to learn and discover and I realize that I would be sitting in my class doing the same lessons with the same technology if I had not started this process. As a final thought/inspiration I want to share this video from Corning. I love how excited I get every time I watch it and I wonder how far we are from this type of world in our everyday lives.

classroom

Lenora Poulin

My future as a technology user?

computers

email

internet

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