Using technology...and other 'fun stuff'

As a student who is 'slightly' older than most students this is a course that I very much wanted to do in my first term at uni....no...that's not quite right...let me rephrase that last comment. I should have said, being old and computer               'challenged' this is a course that I very much NEEDED  to do in my first term at uni. Sadly because I am now only just doing it at the end of my third year of study I did not have all the upcoming knowledge that would have helped me so much in previous courses. However on the bright side ( I am a Pollyanna and tend to always look on this side) I know all that I learn will help me in my future as a teacher. Better late than never, hey?
So I thought, now that I have worked out how to start a blog that it would be fun to write my feelings, thoughts and share my prior knowledge of technology and all those 'fun ways' to get totally side tracked on my friend the computer.  It will be nice to see how my knowledge grows on this amazingly complicated diary called a blog. ( I feel so special...having a blog. Lol)

What I know .....or as we call it in the teaching world ...My Prior knowledge.

We unpacked our first computer with unbelievable excitement. It was a second hand one That we Had  to drive to Bundaberg to pick up ( from Gladstone). They were very expensive and new computers were out of reach for people with ordinary budgets.  We bought this computer for our two daughters Christmas present but I think I was even more excited than they were. It was big, heavy, grey and took up an entire kitchen table and looking back it was very ugly, but then, I thought it was beautiful.

This was 20 years ago, my how things have changed. Today I wait impatiently for my lap top to open a page and if it takes longer than 1 minute I start calling the computer names. Back then, when the grey beast opened up, we waited with expectant smiles or made a pot of tea and a tray of bickies to enjoy when it was ready.  ( slight exaggeration...but not far from the truth).

Wen my youngest daughter wanted to communicate with people from all over the world, I watched amazed over her shoulder ( I was scared to leave her alone in case a big bad boogeyman contacted her) as she typed messages to untold amounts of friends in countries that I had not even heard of. Pretty soon I had joined her and I had friends of my own. I loved it!! It was so wonderful to have a room full of friends at your fingertips. Friends that you could turn off as soon as you got sick of company, or run to when ever you wanted or needed company. It was a whole new world, figuratively and literally.

My computers changed over the following years. They grew smaller and ...oh so much faster! No longer could you make a cuppa in the short time it took to fire up.