Alright, I think you know this already, but just in case: I love technology. I can’t get enough of it. I am forever on my Apple PowerBook, e-mailing, blogging, chatting, working on my website, uploading and editing pictures, listening to music, organizing my files, and surfing the Internet. Just about the only thing I don’t do on the computer is play games, and even occasionally I can get hooked into The Sims or Myst or Sim City.
Both my parents and my stepfather (my mom and dad are divorced and remarried) worked for IBM their entire careers so I grew up in a technology rich household. We always had 3 or 4 of those old monsters lying around the house – no Macs though. We went to IBM family days every summer, Christmas parties in December, and I often went to my mom’s office to hang out with her. Computers were a very natural part of our lives. And, ironically, because of that, I actually hated computers growing up. It wasn’t until I got my first job as an IT intern in a middle school that I realized that, in actuality, the technology vibes had been seeping in all those years ago. It turns out that technology was actually my “hidden” passion, so I ended up becoming a technology teacher.
It was at that job that I started using Macs again. We had a lab of brand new Window’s PCs and one iMac. I staunchly refused to touch the iMac for the whole first year – what would I want with that thing? They don’t even let you do anything on a Mac. But, all it took was one teacher who used to consult for Apple to show me iMovie for about 5 minutes and I was hooked. I bought my first Mac about a year after that and I will never go back to PC. In fact, I did most of my job hunt last time around based on which platform the school was running, and that’s certainly going to be a major factor the next time I go recruiting.
I am always spending all of my free time trying to check out new tools and develop creative ways for implementing them in the classroom. There’s always something new with technology – that’s probably what I love most about it.
What is your digital life like?
Image 1: http://www.cnet.com.au/cnet/i/r/2005/mobilecomp/
notebooks/22049640/apple_17inch_powerbook_g4_b.jpg
Image 2: http://www.supplychainer.com/50226711/images/ibm-logo.jpg
Image 3: http://www.sceneandheard.ca/images/ilife.jpg
It’s funny. About ten years ago, I did not even use email, and was the proud owner of a Mac Color Classic. Then in 2000 or 2001, a dear friend told me about a portable email machine called a Mailstation. So, off to Radio Shack I went. I then progressed to purchasing a cordless telephone, an iMac computer,graduated from the MailStation to an Earthlink account, and a cell phone. I now own a Palm Pilot, an iMac laptop, and a digital camera. I also have high speed and digital cable. I have become techo-fied, and am LOVING IT! I am now learning Web 2.0 – did not know there was such until I joined the Blogosphere, and will attend a day-long workshop later this month to learn how to use iPods in the foreign language classroom. So, now I need to purchase an iPod.
You get a lot of respect from me for writing these helpful arcielts.
Miss Profe,
Nice! A totally inspiring story! You are living web 2.0 with your blog and communicating with so many other bloggers!
I know you’ve seen my professional blog (I’m really making an effort to split the personal and professional, but it doesn’t always work out that well), but I really recommend Redefining Literacy by David Warlick and Will Richardson’s book. I’ve been teaching technology for 7 years now, but those two books really opened my eyes to the possibilities of web 2.0.
Keep exploring! Learning by doing is always an adventure with technology 🙂
I’m with you. I actually had a college internship with IBM. Safe to say I didn’t fit in, I just didn’t know why. I’ve been an Apple guy for about 3 years now and I can’t imagine that changing any time soon.
Cool blog.
Mitch,
Welcome, fellow Apple lover 🙂 They are just so much better in every single way, aren’t they…