September's Technology Autobiography

In the Fall of 2007, as a student in the Master’s program in Educational Technology at the University of North Carolina, I am asked to both discover and declare findings of entering the autobiographical process of increasing self-awareness through examining my teaching and learning related interaction with technology. This process is an attempt to better understand my current situation of being somewhat overwhelmed and mesmerized with the possibilities that technology presents for all aspects of education. I am experiencing a form of “information overload”. Technology overwhelms me by offering such a wide gamut of opportunity and making it difficult for me to focus on a particular area of impact. I hope to improve myself as student, as a teacher, as a mentor, as a teacher of teachers and as a politically active adult who wants to improve education in all aspects. It is my belief that technology can significantly improve learning and that belief parallels my overall belief that learning is a personal and constructive lifetime endeavor that positively impacts each person’s ability to savor life to the fullest. I am unsure of the direction technology will take me, but I am totally “sold” on bringing technology to learning. With that in mind, I present various aspects of my personal history that relate to my desire to become fluent in a broad spectrum of technological advances.
There is no doubt that it was extremely important that before leaving my 14 year tranquil sojourn in the land of Mayan culture and archaeology, I had a strong image of becoming computer literate. That image has held true for the past 12 years and was most important in my decision to seek a Masters in Educational Technology. In Yucatan Mexico, my family and neighbors lived without computer connection. Our main source of news was the Diario Yucatan, whose staff published translations of all UPI and API feeds every day for all countries of the world. I often commented on how incredible it was to have the benefit of such a globally aware newspaper to examine daily in this provincial, calm zone of the world (that was also labeled “third world”). In the United States, I remembered having had little daily news of most of the world ( ie: African, Asian, or Latin American nations), nor even weekly news of our neighbors in Mexico or Canada. This is significant for me daily, as I am aware of how drastically deficient my local NC papers are, and of how important internet access to newspapers around the world is for me to maintain my global current event focus.
My educational background lies strongly in the field of special education, and I believe that is why I find myself tending toward wanting to know more about applying technology to improving the lives of students with disabilities. As I am totally invested in full community and educational inclusion of people with disabilities, I begin to realize that actually means moving myself more toward utilizing technology to improve the education of ALL students (with attention to mixed abilities, the influence of location, socio-economic situation, health, age, interests and more). It means including the education of teachers, other professionals and administrators. I have taken on the huge endeavor of trying to become “comfortable enough” to adapt to the most current technology quickly and openly, and able to ascertain the implications of new technology on classroom instruction, professional development and administrative excellence.
That said, I will now return to recording personal accounts of technology in my life. I believe it was my father’s reel-to-reel motion picture projector that really got me excited about focusing on using audio-visual equipment during my student teaching days. I also remember that I implemented various stations in my first classroom that had students pushing buttons on tape recorders to get their individual lessons, using record players, and tachometers with little slides flashing words or pictures in sequence, much like the View-Alls used with round disks of small film sections of Niagra Falls or The Grand Canyon or self-made sequential stick figures in motion, etc. I also remember making and using “pin-hole cameras” with my students, and making many models of the earth in the solar system, complete with gears for rotations and lighting. Another “tickling memory” is of those electrically charged panels I used to make that let the students choose the answer to a question by touching a wire next to the answer of their choice and if it was correct a light flashed! What a simple pleasure. Self-paced learning at its simplest level. Agreed, that was BASIC technology, but, it all helped to produce quite a lively, engaged group of learners, excited anew each day, and I continue to strive to facilitate the same.
I currently help students, other teachers, parents and service providers attain the proficiency they seek with specific skills. I try to promote the use of technology in classrooms by example, and have had good response with communication boards, text to speech and speech recognition software, word processing, spell-checking programs, Powerpoint, and SlideShow. (I would like to be able to set them up on a computer even when there is a snag in the installing process). My students and I often research online (not only “googling”). We have found many interesting articles, many answers to specific questions, beautiful works of art, conjugations of irregular verbs, and ways to travel to without ever leaving Orange County! We have also successfully used the internet to set up accommodations for foreign travel, using critiques and comments of strangers to help make our choices. I have woven the internet into my tutoring and community work.
I come to realize that over the past 12 years, I have become quite comfortable with most computer technologies in classroom. When I was a classroom teacher, I learned how to set up old PCs, do some DOS programming to start basic programs, and learned to operate in a Mac environment also. My students and I use Microsoft Office programs. We make photo galleries, and play DVDs and CDs. I find many uses for technology in the constructivist student-centered activities I contract with my students. In 2001, I quickly adapted to Blackboard use for University classwork, including discussion boards and chats. I rely on online libraries and electronic journals, and don’t know how I ever did literature reviews without them. I learned a lot about technology in the classroom from ESchoolNews, my instructors, and other teachers in my classes. I am dependent on, and intrigued by, technology as a teaching-learning tool.
I participate in various professional listservs and access various bulletin boards. I use technology for communication, finding great pleasure in “IMing”, complete with icons and audibles, and marvel at how incredibly wonderful it is to so easily touch in with the person watching my home in Yucatan. I remember how ridiculously unreliable mail was between the Yucatan and the US just a dozen years ago. It took at least 10 days, if it arrived at all. Mexican phones were said to “drive grown men to tears”. Today, my friends in Mexico have computers, as do my friends in other parts of the world. Emails are an every day event. I “Skype” my friends also, but, I must admit, that without the video components set up to see each other, I do feel weird talking to my computer screen! The ease of connecting with people all over the world is a joy that technology brings.
I believe that we have to be careful about technology’s potential to isolate individuals and possibly eliminate or drastically reduce “real life” social interaction. I have disturbing thoughts about people who get fixated on specific subjects or perversities, and recognize that there are other aspects of technological advancement that can become distorted and dangerous. (The Space Odyssey’s computer Hal comes to mind). I also have concerns about privacy and trust. When on Myspace or YouTube, I often find myself thinking about people lying or misrepresenting themselves, and innocent folks being “taken in” by imposters and thieves. I have a lot to learn about online security.
I don’t use all programs or hardware that I would like to use, I don’t use MP3s, I don’t download much music, or many videos, though I do download many graphics. I don’t use whiteboards, I don’t use videoconferencing smoothly, I don’t blog, and I don’t use chatrooms often. I don’t know how to use Ipods, Podcasts, or send emails from my cellphone. I don’t know how to set up a website. I don’t know how to set up or moderate a discussion board or chat room or host a webcast or webconference. I would like to learn about all available technology for all computer environments, including networking, and how to incorporate technology to assist in accomplishing everyday tasks more efficiently, and utilize technology to improve emotional and physical health and well-being.
As a student of technology, I am trying to “stretch” myself technologically and assist others in doing the same. I would like to establish a web presence that allows students to improve their writing, reading and learning skills interactively and happily. Teaching with technology does seem to “level the playing field”, encourage active student engagement and provide motivation by being able to incorporate such a wide range of interests. As an educator, I believe that the rewards of technology can be advantageous for all aspects of learning and teaching, and hope to advance the use of technology on all levels of public and private education.