My Technology First

Everyone has many firsts in life. First step, birthday, day of school, homecoming, graduation, and the list can go on and on. I remember using computers in school. They were the OLD apple computers with a green screen. In elementary school, I remember The Oregon Trail game. In high school, we only used them to type stories for English or for keyboarding class. As a high school student, that was my only real experience with technology. I grew up in a household that supported technology. I grew up with a Commodore 64 and can remember playing hours and hours of Family Feud and golf from real floppy disks.  I remember getting our new and updated Gateway desktop. The new computer was HUGE in size, but it was impressive to have a colored monitor and tricked out computer in our home. We even had *cough* dial-up internet and spent hours on AOL. We were somebodies!

When I went to college, I started off with an Educational Technology class as well as began learning how to use Blackboard. I adapted quickly to the courses. I remember at that point I didn't feel like I was ahead of the game, but I was holding my own for sure. As I continued my through my degree program, I learned more about technology. I become very comfortable in Microsoft Office programs. I student taught during my last semester in college. It was the most liberating part of my entire technology life.

I walked into a classroom that was full of technology. There were eight or nine student computers, printers, projector, digital cameras, and the list went on and on. I remember being excited that I had a computer at my "desk". My cooperating teacher was a fantastic encouragement. He was one who really helped spark my love for technology in the classroom. My first experience was an interdisciplinary unit that I helped facilitate. Each of the content areas had a role in this project and I was the one to help them with the technology. I remember being in the computer lab with teachers who weren't very "tech savvy" and I was helping them troubleshoot problems. By the end of that week, I was running the computer lab. I was leading the students through the unit and answering their questions right and left. I felt very comfortable in that role and actually felt like I was the teacher. I was much more confident with technology after that unit.

Later on in my student teaching, it became my turn to create a technology based lesson. That was my first time to be introduced to a Webquest. My lesson was supposed to be during Black History month, so I had to create a lesson that would suit that time frame. I was student teaching in Louisiana History so I had plenty of opportunities to meet the needs of this topic. The first thing I had to do was research what a Webquest was and also what made a good Webquest. I worked for hours and hours on that Webquest. So I would say that's my first experience with the amount of time it takes to effectively plan out a technology lesson. The students completed the Webquest in it's entirety. It was such a rush to see how much the students enjoyed the lesson and how engaged they were in the project. Thus a technology junkie was born. Here's a link to the quest in case you wanted to check it out. Also if you teach Louisiana History browse that site it is an amazing resource.

I share this tale with you to encourage you that everyone has to have a technology first. Each time we try something new, it's a first that furthers our knowledge. I find that often times we are scared of technology but more so scared to "break" something. You can't get better and more comfortable without first stepping out there and trying something new.