ICT TimelineMichelle HarrisReflect on your personal use of ICTs. Create a time line - of any form, be it a Word doc, a pdf, a youtube video, a song, a photo montage, etc  - and post an accessible link here, in a thread with your name as the title. Also, think about how your use of these technologies contributed and contribute to your sense of who you are. Please read the threads of your classmates, and feel free to comment/share, to get a sense of where we are all coming from in a technological-habit sense.

January 2011LIS 590ML: Media Literacy and Youth

First Computers

• Years: 1981-1984There were no computers for student use in my high school. We still typed our papers on typewriters. But the library had an early computer. I don’t recall why…making a catalog?

Were there office computers? I don’t remember. I don’t think so.

First Computers• First time I saw a touch-

screen computer proto-type: 1982 or 1983.

I had a friend whose father was involved with the CERL at University of IL and his company, Carroll Touch Technology, was creating touch-screen technology. Although I was still in high school, we used to go into the CERL lab on campus to take a look around.

College Years• Illinois State University

By 1988, I had used the computer lab in the library for word processing and done some very basic programming as part of an education course. (We produced text in the shape of a Christmas tree.) I remember using Tandy computers, floppy disks, and daisy-wheel printers.

As an education major, there was never any mention that computers would be an important component in teaching.

1988 First Job: HS English Teacher•Taught English for one year at Chenoa

HS.•No computers.

1989 Second Job: Data Processing

• Worked at Country Companies Insurance in Bloomington, IL in the Beneficiaries Department. Had a computer on my desk for entering beneficiary changes into the records.

• This is my first cubicle. (Dilbert would be so proud!)

1992: First Personal Computer

•Bought our first home computer. A Dell 386? Used it for keeping financial records and word processing. Also played early CD-ROM games and used it for recording music. Eventually added email.

Early Computer Use

•Finances•Entertainment: games•E-mail

•My resume from 1992 lists the following “PC knowledge:”▫WordStar▫IBM DisplayWrite 3▫Wang▫Ventura Publisher

The Sesame Street Years: 1993-2005

• Stay-at-home Mom to two daughters.

• Continued to use computer for word processing, gaming, email, desktop publishing, and simple databases. Used Windows products. Self-taught with technical assistance provided by IT-employed husband. Computer lived in a guest bedroom until new home built in 2002 with an office and CAT-5 wiring throughout house.

First Cell Phone: 2001

•Kyocera K9•Purchased so that I

could be available to contractor during building of new house.

•Still carrying and using this phone today!

•Still using a pay-as-you-go plan (not much calling)

Amateur to Expert?

•When did I become a computer geek?

•When exactly did my knowledge-base blossom?

•By the time I went to University of IL in 2006, I was fairly proficient with computers and tech gear.

Michelle Harris 2011•Hold a degree in library

and information science.

•Get a kick out of teaching technology in the schools where I work as a school librarian.

•Use lots of Web 2.0 tools and teach others to use them creatively.

•Connected, networked, and continuing to learn.

Today: Bookgirl and TechnoGeek • Use computers daily for email, internet

searching, presentations, teaching, photography, and more.

• Updated my two school libraries to computerized circulation systems.

• Know HTML and CSS.

• Use wikis and podcasting in teaching.

• Advocate using Web 2.0 technologies to inspire readers.

• Teach with SmartBoard.

• Installed own wireless network.

• Use Kindle. • Download Amazon video-on-demand.

•Music on ipod.

That’s me…downloading photos from the camera onto a netbook so that I can hop on the internet and update the daily diary on my vacation blog. Vegas is outside the window!

ReflectionHow do/have these technologies contribute to my sense of who I

am?• I think that I have always been fascinated by technology although I was never

an early adopter—mostly because it never occurred to me that the technology would do something that I needed to do. Later, when I had my own PC, I liked to use computers for creative endeavors and to keep organized. In my early years of PC use, I felt cutting-edge and skilled with a tool that not everyone embraced. I think that fostered my “not afraid of tech” positive attitude.

• Although I am now an experienced tech user, I am still a little old-fashioned in that I’ve never updated my phone (don’t even keep it on half the time!), I don’t use Facebook or other social networking, and I don’t want to feel connected 24/7. I’m never the person with the latest gadget, and yet I’m definitely excited about using tech and finding ways to incorporate tech into my teaching. I was the first person in my school to use a SmartBoard and I’m a tireless advocate for using Web 2.0 technologies in teaching.

• My technology use makes me feel clever, organized, creative, up-to-date, and efficient. I like using tech that is useful to me, but I don’t like to feel ruled by the machines. Mastering technology makes me feel professionally competent. I am not a digital native, but I feel that I keep up with innovations and wisely choose what will enhance my life.