Putt Putt…

One of my first experiences with technology was when my family got our very own (massive) desktop. At this point I’m not even sure that there was internet but it allowed my mom to type documents for her class. I really did not have much interest in it until I was given the computer game Putt Putt. Putt Putt was a little purple car that lived in a neighbourhood of cars and he did little jobs like cutting the grass to pay for money. You had to move the computer arrows, up, down, left and right to make sure you cut all of the grass. For each lawn you cut, you earned money which you could then spend on things like getting a new paint job! I was overly fascinated with this game.

Next came The Sims which was a more grown-up version of Putt Putt where you had to take care of the people in the house (first by building and designing a house which was my favourite part). Then you had to do chores, make sure you got to work on time (without missing the bus), make and keep friendships. I remember thinking, this is just too cool. I am completely in charge of whether or not this ‘person’ fails or succeeds at life, all my controlling it through my computer. Perhaps a little melodramatic but it really gave me insight into what a fascinating piece of machinery the computer was. It is so interesting now to talk to students in my class and see there reactions about not having a computer or even, gasp, no internet! They simply cannot understand a world in where internet has never existed. It really makes me excited for the future and to see where technology will bring us. Currently, I am really fascinated with Augmented Reality (AR) and would love to see, first hand, how it can change classrooms!