Invisible Ink

Japanse karakters / Japanese characters, originally uploaded by Nationaal Archief.

This image of Japanese characters caught my attention by mirroring my keyboard… in the past. These carefully crafted characters represent the painstaking process by which raw materials were transformed into symbolic characters which were in turn arranged to form meaningful text. Looking at the neat rows of letters on my own keyboard, I can see how technology has transformed not just the final product of texts, but also the mechanics by which we create text. The sophisticated technologies that have been developed since 1938 (when this image was taken) have removed the ink from the process of mass producing writing and have allowed the push of a button to summon and banish the components of text.

My name is Rachel Bronk and ETEC 540 is my 8th course in the MET program (graduating in April!). I live in North Vancouver, BC and when I’m not “MET’ing” I can be found swimming, reading “non-school books” or planning my wedding. I am the IEP/Assessment Coordinator at the senior campus of Collingwood School in West Vancouver, BC. I admit that my position it not as directly related to educational technology as I would like it to be. However, in working with students who have learning disabilities I am amazed at how technology has been able to provide supports and innovations that are truly breaking down barriers. I mainly coordinate IEPs and assist with programming for students who have a reading disorder or disorder of written expression and the text technologies addressed in ETEC 540 that are “changing the spaces of reading and writing” are doing so for my students as much as they are for anyone else. I look forward to working with everyone in this course.

🙂 Rachel