Category Archives: A. Auto e-graphy

My first technology experiences

I have a few memories from my elementary school days in regards to technology. First, I remember having an old Mac computer in our school that we would take turns playing games on. I have no idea what type of games they were or even if they were educational, but I remember waiting patiently for my turn on the computer. At home, my sister and I loved the hour once a week that we were allowed to play on our ATARI video game. After a few years, we were allowed to upgrade to a Nintendo and I loved playing Mario Brothers and Bubble Bobble. As I moved into high school, I remember taking a typing course as one of our electives (along with sewing, cooking, metal and woodwork). We would all sit at the computers and the teacher would cover our hands during out “typing tests.”

Once I graduated from high school (1998), I took my first online course and it was a Canadian history course. I was sent cassette tapes that I had to listen to each week and I would have to submit my papers via email. There was no back and forth dialogue with other students and we had a 2 hour block of time that we were given to email our teacher any questions that we had. It’s hard to believe that it has been 20 years since I took my first course online.

Nicole

Microsoft Paint and communicative space

In high school, I remembered that one of my favorite programs was Microsoft Paint. I used MS Paint to create informative posters for my projects. Given my limited fine motor skills, drawing and writing was difficult for me. It was easier to type and to manipulate pre-defined shapes and colors. Paint was a suitable alternative since it allowed me to be more efficient when creating a visual representation. I also enjoyed using MS Paint because I was able to zoom in to make bit-sized modifications.

Microsoft paint was free software that pre-installed with other Microsoft applications. It is essentially a giant piece of white paper with different tools to create a visual representation. Users can create defined shapes of any sizes, fill in spaces with different colors, make copies of the current visual and select and move any part of their creation. It also allows the freedom to integrate pictures and text. According to the SAMR model, MS Paint would resemble a textbook case of substitution (i.e. for art paper).

However, is there more to Paint than a simple application that helps users fill in a blank space with color and shapes?

Specifically, Microsoft Paint influences the technological landscape by introducing new cultures such as ubiquitous use of technological tools and new typographic freedom. First, ‘undo’ and ‘redo’ options is a powerful feature that helps demonstrate the flexibility and the ubiquitous use of technological tools. MS Paint represents new ways of organising and understanding information. Users have more autonomy and independence to make and unmake decisions. They can benefit from making a choice and immediately receiving the corresponding results. This strongly influences the length of one’s attention span and their tolerance for delayed gratification.

Bolter (2001) would agree that the features of Paint allow for typographic freedom. Hence, the visual and verbal ratio is now a customisable variable. Users decide how words and pictures are positioned in relationship to each other. Moreover, Microsoft Paint may very well be the catalyst for the ‘Rip. Remix. Feed’ culture. MS Paint makes it easy for users to ‘remix’ previous work – i.e. alter and modify existing creations. For example, users can easily import pictures and or use stock pictures to layer words, add comments or alter visuals.

In the 21^st century, immersive technology provides users with expanded creative spaces. Consider Kipmen’s (2006) talk about Microsoft Holographic Lens, users can experience their artistic creation. Kipmen argues that holograms and immersive experience allow users to easily gain a new perspectives about their creation. Users can also interact with different elements in their creative piece. This has realistic applications. For example, engineers can improve their models by turning their creations in different directions. Scientists can use the virtual space to explore new terrain. Ultimately, this visual experience allows users to think outside of the box. Now, this use of this New Media would represent the ‘Redefinition’ part of the SAMR model.

Given this review, how has Microsoft Paint influence your digital journey? How are your memories of Microsoft Paint? How does Microsoft Paint influence the communicative landscape?

References

Bolter, J.D. (2001). Writing Space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 3246, 7798.

Kipmen, A. (2016). A futuristic vision of the age of holograms. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/alex_kipman_the_dawn_of_the_age_of_holograms/transcript

80s Technology

Growing up in the 70s and 80s had many new digital advancements, I guess I am dating myself!

I was fortunate to experience many of them.

My walkman: Making mixed tapes!

My Typewriter: Always making mistakes and needing to start over AGAIN!

Beta Machine: Recording a movie, then accidentally recording over it! 🙁

In the early 80s, my very first digital technology experience was when my brother and I got our Intellivsion II! It was a Christmas present and parents had my relatives from the USA to ship it here to Canada! We were one of the first to have one!! We played it for hours!!

Today I am not a gamer and I have very few games on my iPad, but having something before anyone else still is a part of me. I am the “gadget girl”! I am the person in the family who always have the latest and greatest digital technology. It has also filtered into the classroom, where I am the teacher who asks the administration for the “techie stuff” and I know my students appreciate the innovating digital tools to enhance their learning.

Images:

console: http://www.8-bitcentral.com/mattel/intellivisionIIImages.html

games: https://www.retrogamer.net/top_10/top-ten-intellivision-games/

COCO2

I risk dating myself here… my earliest memory of using technology was the old TRS-80 from Radio Shack. It had something ridiculous like 16k of internal memory and we hooked it up to our TV. Because it had no internal memory, we would sit in front of the TV and type in code from a thick book in order to make it do anything. One day we finally upgraded to an external cassette tape drive we could use to save the code we had typed in.

So… I take great pleasure in saying I have been “coding” since I was seven-years-old.

I have many memories of using technology with sketchy methods of saving work, including cassette tapes, floppy disks, hard disks… up to now where I am a fan of cloud computing.

My first memory of teaching with technology, especially related to math, was my first year of teaching. My mentor teacher got me started on “project lighthouse” in which we got funds for release time to build web pages that could be used in our classroom. Back then, a static page with links was still pretty innovative (at least in my mind). I think we’ve come such a long way from using technology as a “use it when you’re finished the real work” time filler to a place where it truly redefines the work we ask of students in the classroom.

It’s stunning to see how far technology has come and I imagine my young learners in 30 years will look back on the tools we use in the classroom today as being quaint attempts at innovative technology.

Pet Computers?

At the risk of completely dating myself, I distinctly remember my first interaction with computers around Grade 3 as a group of us crowded around a singular Commodore PET computer in the corner of the classroom. Most the time spent with this PET consisted of playing a game where you controlled a virtual fish that could only eat smaller fish; attempting to eat larger fish taught you a hard lesson about ecology.

Fast forward to 2012 and a new job as an IT Help Desk Support Technician at Pickering College. Twenty brand new iPads landed in my office with a simple list of requested applications for me to install.

As a new employee I did what I was told; I installed the apps immediately and placed them in a cart for our Junior School students/teachers to use. Later, I took it upon myself to observe these iPads being used in the classroom. The students seemed quite engaged in the educational games that the teachers had chosen. A question kept nagging at me though – after all this time and all the advancements in technology, was this the only outcome? A pet device to “edu-tain” students?

My Life after The Secret of Monkey Island

I loved games as a child (still do), especially those on the NES, but most failed to capture my interest on an emotional level. The first game I remember stopping me in my admittedly child-sized tracks was Secret of Monkey Island. I, then, was likely 6 or 7. I stumbled upon it on an old computer in a friend’s garage.

I was amazed that a game like this could exist. I understood stories as things in books my parents would read to me, that I could watch on TV, or in a theatre; my part to play was passive.

Something changed when I played Monkey Island.

Not only did I feel like I was in the story, I felt like I was the protagonist; I felt like I had agency.

This feeling stuck with me and later lead to an interest in game-based learning and allowing students to have agency in their learning activities, whether it’s through games like Garry’s Mod or Minecraft to teach tricky concepts, or using Twine to create choose-your-own-adventure games.

I question now what other digital technologies exist out there just waiting for me to stumble upon them, which could impact me, and my future students, in pleasantly unexpected ways.

-Scott

Typing Class and The Internet

I have two vivid memories of using technology as a young student. The first takes place in the small computer lab that was under the stairs in my elementary school. We had 30 of the old-school little grey Macs, the ones that had black and white screens. The class was called LA-Computers and pretty much solely focused on typing skills. We would be given sheets to type out, and our teacher would walk around behind us with a meter stick, slapping our knuckles when we were off home-row. While the act of slapping a student’s hand with a piece of wood may seem rather abusive, but it certainly did impress on me the importance of hand placement…ultimately making me a stronger typer.

My second memory has to do with my first introduction to the internet. I clearly remember walking past the grade 6 classroom as a lower elementary student, and seeing the teachers getting connected to the internet for the first time. Popping my head in, they seemed blown away. Comments like “it’s literally like a newspaper, just on the screen” and “there is SO MUCH stuff on here” were flowing from their mouths. Seeing me in the doorway, one of the teachers invited me to come back one day after school so we could “surf the web.” From there it was about 3 years until we had a computer at home, and I had to beg my mom to get off the phone so I could dial-in and play some sort of basic game like Oregon Trail. It was at least another 4 years though until I was using the internet at school for any sort of helpful research.

Where I came from……

I’m a 39 year old male who has had technology play a part in his life since he could remember.

My father was a doctor but he was obsessed with computers as a hobby and the latest gadget was always in my home. We had the Commodore 64, then apple 2E before switching to IBM We had an ISDN line (keep in mind nobody had these for private home use) when I was in Grade 11. We would strip computers and replace parts like it was a car. All fun memories indeed.

Over the years a lot has changed but I had a unique upbringing in that we were always on the cutting edge of technology. It drove my mother nuts because my dad invested in a lot of stuff that quickly became obsolete and we still have some computer junk in the basement of my parent’s home in Vancouver that is archaic.

The point is I’ve always been up on technology and that made the changes in education easier for me. Education is a second career for me as I was, and still technically am, a pilot. In that field, I used all kinds of technology and loved it.

My first promotion in Education came as an educational technology coordinator. Essentially it came down to me being very ambitious and wanting to help others. This was seen as useful and it started me down the path toward administration.

Now, as a first-year Principal, I look for teachers who are open to rolling with changes, offer input, keep an open mind, and use technology to add value to their lessons.

We are in a great time for educational technology and I couldn’t be more excited about the possibilities.

Gizmo’s and Gadgets

As a kid I was pretty lucky. My dad worked for various computer companies back when that was a thing and so we had a decent computer for as long as I can remember! However for the most part we were only allowed to play educational games on it so we had the whole slew of solid 90’s educational computer games like Reader Rabbit, 3d Dinosaur Adventure and my favourite Gizmo’s and Gadgets. I loved how these games ‘hid’ complex concepts in activities that I found interesting and kept me engaged, seemingly tricking me into understanding the concept because it was embedded in a problem that I needed to solve in order to move on. I can’t remember if I was able to apply this newly created understanding outside of these context, but what I do know is that this experience provided me with the exposure to learning in a different environment than the traditional classroom.

The MOO

Something that stands out for me related to technology is way back in 1995-1999 when I was an undergrad at the University of Windsor. They had a Computer Science Lab with a bunch of DOS-based desktop computers that you could book times on. I probably used them for course-related stuff but I don’t remember that LOL, what I do remember was the Computer Science or IT Society hosted something called a MOO that I absolutely loved. I have always loved creative writing (typing over penning stories) and games and this MOO was a huge text-based sandbox game that you wrote yourself into! I developed my first understanding of coding and basic computer logic and algorithms through the process of creating characters to play, writing extremely detailed descriptions for “rooms” and their contents, and mastering commands to speak to, wave at, and otherwise interact creatively with the other students who logged on to play, both at home and from the Computer Lab. Less a social pursuit than a nonthreatening activity for the introvert in me, I nevertheless met a few friends on the MOO that I’m still loosely connected with over FB. It was a great way to wile away the hours when I most certainly supposed to be doing something else more productive or studious! 🙂 I wonder whatever happened to that MOO, if it’s still around or obsolete now…