Technology Roots

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a session centered on sharing in an area that I have been extremely interested in since I began teaching and before which has prompted me to reflect on how I arrived at my comfort with technology in the classroom. From my earliest elementary years back in the early 80's I always remember having a computer at my disposal to use at home. My father worked in management for IBM and brought us home a IBM PC JR. I would play Math games and typing games for hours with or without my younger brother around. This was before the Internet was in fashion. It had a little phone icon, but when I asked my dad if I could use it he said that we didn't get that option.

As I went through school computer labs cropped up. Once a week or even less frequently we went to the computer lab in elementary school to play Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? or other titles that bring back nostalgia. High School came and there eventually was a single lab there too. We would go there to only to type our essays and do nothing more. It was the early 90's and email and the Internet were still not entities in schools. University opened my mind to the Internet. We were the last class to register for classes using the old punch card method as registration went online the second quarter I was there. I created my first Yahoo mail account and would spend hours in one of the many computer labs on campus searching. I knew that technology and the Internet were going to be a big part of what I was going to do.

As I began teaching and being a language teacher I had a keen interest in giving my students access to authentic materials. The Web offered my students the opportunity to access the post office in Spain or a restaurant in El Salvador. They could play games or do review exercises to reinforce what we had previously studied in class. As I was working on my Master's degree an opportunity came up to be a contributor to a Web Site a professor was associated with. This turned into the opportunity to create a design a Web Site for my students to use filled with links to grammar, vocabulary and cultural sites that wen to along with the content I was teaching.

Today I find myself attempting to engage students through technology and know that my past has played a great role in that.