My 40 Year Technological Journey

C'mon Mom...You can do it!

            I can still remember the excitement and anticipation my brother and I had the day our dad came home with a VCR.  This magical machine could play movies that we could watch in the comfort of our own home while munching on a big bowl of popcorn.  Amazing!  I was born in 1971 and at the time of my birth, my home had one small television set and one rotary phone that sat on a telephone table.  I remember my mom’s younger sister getting a phone with push buttons that attached to the wall and thinking that it was the coolest thing ever.   And don't even get me started about our first cordless phone.  How many times did my brother and I test just how far we could roam from the base?  Too many to count!

     My dad has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and worked for Bell Labs at the time.  We were actually considered early-adopters, if you can believe that.  Many of my father’s friends and colleagues helped design the first computers and cell phones, and because of this, we had access to the knowledge that these devices were even available.  My uncle, my dad’s brother, called our home in NJ from the George Washington Bridge one afternoon on one of the first cell phones.  We couldn’t

believe it, to us it was as far out as the Jetsons.  When we got one of the really early Apples, you know the ones with the big floppy disk drives that make a ton of noise and take up a ton of space, our friends came over to stare at it.  I remember lively discussions among the adults as they asserted that computers would never make it into their homes, at least not in their lifetime.  I would bet money that today, each and every one of them has multiple technological devices on their desk, in their cars and in their pockets/purses.

Fast-forward 10 years to 1981, my sister was born and the world was a different place.  More and more of our friends had joined us in getting a home computer and there were several in my sister’s kindergarten classroom.  Her generation would embrace technology in a new way.  They would not be afraid of this mysterious machine but would touch it, play with it and not fear they would break it.  Today, my sister is 30 years old and the most computer savvy person in my circle.  She can run rings around my older relatives with advanced engineering and computer science degrees.  She is not intimidated, and in my eyes, can figure anything out about a computer in a matter of minutes.  It is very natural to watch her work with technologies she is familiar with, as well as to get up to speed with new devices and programs.

As for me, I am definitely intrigued and eager learn a little more each day about the different technologies available and how I can best use them for myself personally, with my students and with my own kids.  I use my computer, my smart phone and my iPad almost daily, but I know that I am not close to understanding the potential of their use.  Even still I can’t wait to justify purchasing a MacBook and an iPhone…my sister tells me that I’ll just love them both!

      I know that I need to embrace, understand and be able to use new technologies effectively in order to parent my tech-savvy kids (and know what they’re up to!) and to stay current and competent as a teacher.  Still, I cannot tell a lie, it causes me more than a little anxiety.  When I went away to college, only one girl in my dorm had her own computer.  I travelled to the computer lab to type my papers and didn’t speak to my best friend for a year when she travelled to Spain because email really didn’t exist for the masses yet.  My parents even sent me off with a jar of change in case I needed to use a pay phone.   In an age of smart phones and email, of Facebook and Twitter, this seems hard to imagine.

I am truly excited to devote the time to becoming more technologically savvy.  I want to learn what is out there and how to embrace it.  This class and those willing to patiently help me along the way are crucial to my success.  I need the reassurance of someone sitting next to me, showing me what to do in order to succeed.  I hope one day to be able to help someone in a similar technological position take the leap too!