My parents bought our first computer, a Commodore 64, when I was 16 years old. My time on the computer was limited because I shared it with my three siblings and my parents. The computer took up most of the space on our desk in the basement. I remember the floppy disk drive and the joystick, as well as the clunky keys and the monitor that looked like our television set. I spent my time on the computer playing games like Pong, Pacman and Frogger. Prior to the Commodore 64, my only experience using a computer was over a couple of months in grade nine when we were introduced to coding while I was taking a business course. I remember sitting in a small area at the back of a classroom, and three of us sharing one computer for a limited time period each class. I had very limited access to the computer, and did not learn anything about coding in that class. When I reflect on my experience as a student trying to learn coding, I remember my students faced the same accessibility and technical issues when I taught at an inner city school. How can schools effectively incorporate technology into the curriculum if they do not have the means to support the students?
I also reflected on my lack of learning when in early computer classes. There were always multiple students per computer and the activities were boring or repetitive. That being said, I thought the computer was cool and always wanted to “tinker” more with it. I agree that many institutions are not able to allow students to use technology to its full potential and many are lacking in the basic infrastructure to allow any real potentials to be reached. I also feel that many educators are not well trained in technology and many feel it is an “add-on” rather than an integral piece of today’s education. This is slowly changing. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
I went to school before the advent of computers in education, so had very little experience with them until they were accessible to the home. I also remember having a Commodore 64 but only using it to play games, particularly Bomb New York which is terribly politically incorrect today. My experience with computers was very limited until I became an adult and could purchase my own.
It seems like history repeats itself! Inaccessibility seems to be a continuous issue in schools, cities, countries and in the world. It definitely requires flexibility and creativity on part of the educator. In my class I have access to 6 laptops among 25 students and I am trying to teach them proper typing skills. Very few of them have access to a computer at home, so in order to be successful students will need to maximize the time in school. I devise a typing schedule were each student is assigned a day of the week to practice their typing in the first 20 minutes of the school day. It’s definitely not an ideal situation, but students are received consistent practice and support.
Hmmm, your experience with sharing a computer seems directly at odds with a lot of the current research (Mishra, I believe, focused on exactly this) that looks at computer sharing as a social-constructivist activity that aids learning. It would be interesting to looks at what, in your experience, differed from Mishra’s research to see if there are perhaps some particular factors/approaches that have very different outcomes even in a similar situation.
I think this exact problem has raised its head in every MET course I have taken. How do we do what we can do best with a) not enough devices b) poor or non existent band width c) have and have not students as well as , d) staff who are afraid of or refuse to learn the tech properly to use it. The answer always seems to be, lead by example. Show non believers what can be done and hope they leave the dark side.
This coming to you from a person in a horrible internet access area, even though we are quite close to major cities and I am currently doing this from a Starbucks on my ipad because my wifi has gone awol and my computer is being wonky. HOpe you love my techy terms.
Catherine
It is interesting how some issues are still salient for us, even though the devices have been upgraded or changed. Thank you Elizabeth for your auto-biographical reminder, Samia