My Commodore and I

I remember receiving my first computer, a commodore 64.  It was the first Christmas after my father died and I think my mom was trying to make up for his absence.  Before now, I’d never reflected on how important “Dori” was to our family that year or the years following.  My older brother and I spent endless hours together programming games and playing them with each other.  Dori ignited a passion in Bruce, who later became a programmer for Microsoft.  And although I liked technology, I couldn’t see myself living behind a screen for the rest of my life.  As early as high school, I realized I was meant to work with people and felt that teaching was my calling.  Even so, Dori would have a continual influence throughout my life.  He taught me not to be afraid of technology.  And I realized that machines and their systems can be much more than what they appear.   In fact,  Dori was a great antagonist and teacher; he often did the opposite of what I wanted and frequently misunderstood my meaning or code. Looking back, Dori was probably just as frustrated with me as I was with him.  Yet, I remained his only link to the outside word and he stayed my only link to technology.

When I moved out, Dori retired and later came to rest in the wide yonder of computer graveyards.   But for the sake of this reflective ePortfolio, I imagine Dori being with me and what he would say if he had accompanied me on my learning journey through the progress of the web and the Masters of Educational Technology.  As I reflect on my journey, I will use the evolution of the web as a grounding metaphor from my beginning with my lone computer, Dori, through the different stages of the web.

Prior to beginning my Masters of Educational Technology (MET) journey, I had many humble beginnings both as a teacher and in my own PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (PD). Like my relationship with my first computer, Dori, who represented my connection with technology in a disconnected world (before Web 1.0), so too did the beginning of my teaching career hold a similar disconnection from the world and my peers.  Isolated from any like-minded colleagues, I had no way to share PD. And even as I reached out to find more initiatives and interested others, I still felt relatively isolated outside of these limited PD opportunities. Yet, on a bright note, I was beginning to suspect unrealized potential in technology and the web as a new frontier in the world of PD with the ability to connect teachers to each other and relevant resources.

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