Technology Journey I

This was the first assignment I had for my technology class and I was asked to think back on all that I had done throughout my life with technology. I had never thought about how technology influenced my life until I was asked to do this assignment. Technology is all around us in ways that we do not even realize and just within my education technology has grown greatly in the classroom. I have discussed what technology I have used both educationally and personally in this assignment. There is a second chapter to this, Technology Journey II, which I wrote after taking this course.

My Technology Journey I

My introduction to technology started when I was only a few months old. My father worked for the military and would bring home laptops to work on and I would sometimes bang on the keyboard or play with the paint set. Granted I did not do anything useful with the technology; I was exposed to it at a very young age and I continued to be exposed to technology up until today.

My first use of technology was in first grade where we had four computers in the classroom. Every week all the students had to work on the computers at least once a day and we had to complete an assigned task, but we could also play on the computer if he finished our work early. Every week we had to read a book and then take a ready quiz on the computer where we had to correctly answer three-quarters of the questions correctly. We used the drawing software to practice our spelling words and to correctly match words and pictures. While I was at school all of the work I did was work my teacher assigned to me, but when I went home, I would play games on my computer.

Over the next years of my elementary career, the computer was mostly used for working on math and spelling and sometimes geography. This software allowed me to connect events with their physical location. Technology focused learning into fields that the students were interested in and the teacher was able to teach in an environment that kept the students awake and got them interested in the material.

Once I was in middle school I used the computer to type, write reports for classes, and do research for projects. My first research project was to find out my heritage and then come up with information for every country that I had ancestors from. This introduction to researching in the sixth grade allowed me to become proficient in using the internet and writing papers; tools which have followed me until today.

Technology used in my life

	Elementary	Middle	High School	College
Microsoft Word	X	X	X	X
Paint Document	X	X	X
Atlas Software	X	X
E-mail		X	X	X
Internet		X	X	X
AIM/MSN Messenger		X	X	X
Applications			X	X
Cell Phone			X	X
Digital Camera			X	X

For some people technology is an easy concept and they are able to adapt to the new software and new programs, for me sometimes this is difficult. I have to work with new programs for a long time to understand how everything works and to do my work to my fullest potential. Many people have a technical side of their brain, which switches on when they are presented with new technology. This side of my brain tends to take a bit longer to comprehend material because I am a perfectionist and sometimes I will not use technology until I know exactly how it works.

Some of the technology that I use everyday is:

v AIM and MSN Messenger

v Cell Phone

v Facebook

v iTunes

v LimeWire

v Microsoft Word

v Rebel Mail

v Web camera

v Web Campus

Technology has allowed me to keep in touch with old high school friends and new ones who have gone away to college. Technology has also allowed me to keep in touch with my boyfriend who is three thousand miles away and who now does not have a cell phone. Thanks to technology I am able to communicate any problems I have to my teacher or if I am not unable to make it to class. Technology has made my life easier, but I do not believe it has made me lazy and it also has not made me stupider. I believe that I am smarter because of technology because it gives me access to so much information.