Blog #19: Free Blog

This is a free blog. Today I am going to talk about why I think that using technology as a theme for a composition class is great. I hate to say how old I am (probably related to something Dove was hinting at earlier), but during my lifetime, technology has drastically changed the way I live and the way that others live.

When I was in high school, like many females in high school, my mother told me that it was very important to take typing. So I, of course, took typing. My typing class was filled with lots of females. I am not sure if there were any guys in it or not. If there were, there were only a few. Later, I learned that the way typewriter keyboards were designed was directly related to the inability of the typewrite technology to go as fast as typists. Anyway, I learned how to type very well and very fast.

Then I went to a technical training school, where I learned about computers. Back then, computers were relatively new and all operated under DOS. So everyone in my technical training school learned about DOS and how to use the popular programs (at that time), WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3. While we all learned how to use the computer and these programs, we also learned how to use the typewriter. The skills were taught together; fortunately, I already knew about the typewriter. Then I got my first real job as a secretary.
Within a couple of years, technology had changed and moved away from DOS. Most companies had access to the Internet (although it was via a telephone line), and most companies were using Windows. However, the Windows we used back then looked NOTHING like the Windows we use today. There was a move away from WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 and move toward MS Word and Excel programs. Email wasn’t really popular back then and there was no Google.

While most companies used computers regularly and had access to the Internet, computers and the Internet were not widely used by people at home. This was probably due to the fact that they were a pretty expensive luxury. Therefore, the people who were really using the computers the most were those who were in business of some sort, and not the older or younger generations. Eventually, big companies like MAC and Dell started giving free computers to schools. As a result, the computer generation was born and the Internet and Windows based programming began to grown like crazy.

It occurs to me that almost everyone in all of my classes grew up in a world with computers and Internet. Almost everyone has had cell phones and microwaves all their lives. Technology is part of life. We should embrace it and use it in our classrooms. After all, we are using it everywhere else.