Cultural Ecologies and the Literacies of Technology
In the Davis, Hawisher, Osborne, Selfe, and Wormer reading, we are presented with three case studies of individuals born in 1977 and 1978–a period that coincided with the mass production of microcomputers. The reading considers how historical forces impact understandings of literacy and technology. In a 900-word essay, reflect on the differences and similarities of your own life history with those of Jill, Sally, and Damon. Your post here might prove helpful to you as you revise your own literacy narrative.
It’s hard to imagine what it would have been like to grow up in the years when personal computers were a new concept. Nowadays when it’s practically assumed that everyone has access to at least one computer in their household (more often than not every member of a family has their own), it’s hard to even recall how different personal computers were in my childhood – which was really not all that long ago.
My first memory of computers was the one in my dad’s home office when I was quite young – so young in fact, that I cannot remember buying it or unpacking it. It was just there…maybe my parents even had it before I was born in 1989. Like Sally, it was definitely my dad that drove our family’s involvement with technology. As an immigrant to the United States from a developing country, I think he was just fascinated with technology and thrilled that we had the opportunity to use it in our very own home. Who knows, my mother might have been interested in computers too. As I remember it, my dad was almost always occupying the machine, so the rest of us didn’t always have much of a chance to use it!
My sister and I always wanted to though. It was, like Jill and Sally described, a privilege. Until late elementary school or middle school we didn’t really know how to do anything with it but play games. Early on, we only used the ones that had come with that version of Windows. There was Solitaire (which I didn’t really understand), Minesweeper (which I definitely didn’t understand), and a skiing game in which you had to avoid trees and other skiers until you were eventually devoured by a yeti (this one I could do, but it made me nervous). Later on our parents bought us better games; several of which corresponded to the latest Disney movie. My favorite was the Aladdin game. It involved some puzzles, memory games, coloring, and other silly activities that kept me entertained for hours. I also vividly remember this anti-drug game that we played. It was supposed to teach kids not to drink, do drugs, or get involved with gangs by running you through different scenarios and asking you to make decisions. If you made a poor choice, the game’s characters would either end up in, failing school, or getting shot! Looking back, it seems like a scary idea…but I guess it did its job!
I’m not sure why my parents gave us these games or why they bought the computer in the first place. Sally and Jill expressed that their parents thought that a computer was a necessary learning tool. I agree with this, and my parents would probably agree as well – but it was never explicitly stated. As the time I did not know that it was a powerful education tool or that I would need to understand it in order to be successful later in life. Nobody told me that. To me, the computer was just the thing that grown ups used and I sometimes got to play with.
I first started using computers for more practical purposes in fourth grade when I moved to upper middle class suburbia. My new grade school was completely equipped with bright blue iMacs. There were a few machines in every classroom and there was a beautiful computer lab with at least thirty. I had much greater access to computers at school than Jill, Sally, or Damon did. It’s crazy how much the world can change in just a decade. Even though the computers were bountiful, I remember feeling like I had to be extremely careful around the expensive devices. I definitely was not yet comfortable around them.
In middle school I started to receive formal training on computers – something Jill, Sally, and Damon didn’t mention until much later. We had to take mind numbing classes on typing correctly, creating Word documents, and making spreadsheets, and manufacturing posters. I despised these classes. They were easy, but they couldn’t be more boring! Using the school computers became less intimidating as time went on and I was expected to type up all of my important assignments. This was also when I had to start using our home computer (now we had two) for school work. I would transport my work back and forth on floppy disks, which now seem so incredibly ancient! I didn’t enjoy leaning all of these things at school, but I certainly glad that I did. These classes provided me with the base knowledge and confidence to further develop my computer literacy throughout life.
From that point on, using the computer was just an integral part of daily life. From eighth grade, all throughout high school, and even more so in my college years computers have helped me to keep up with school, stay in touch with my friends and family, to research things I like or want to do, plan outings and events, and countless other things. For work and play – they are just necessary. My family has gone from one machine to five laptops and two desktops (plus those used at work) in just twenty years. I have my own personal computer now; I’m the first Mac user in a family of PC’s. When I got it for school, I taught myself how to use it without the help of the Apple store staff, use pamphlets, or online tutorials. I would never call myself a computer whiz, it’s just that a lifetime of being around computers and being encouraged to interact with them has given me a degree of computer literacy.
Well a big thing for me was the fact that my father was in computers. He worked for Motorola and still does, he graduated from here with a bachelor’s in Computer Science. So we had a computer in my house for as long as I can remember. But at the same time there was a sort of backlash. It would make sense that my father would teach my sister and me about computers because of his proficiency, but that wasn’t the case. He actually didn’t like using the computer at home, it just reminded him too much of work. So he pretty much ignored the computer when he was at home. So for a long time we didn’t really use the computer much at home, even though we always had one.
Also different for me was the fact that my parents are both Chinese. While they were both avid readers, it was in a completely different language. However they still placed a very large emphasis on reading, so I learned to read from a very young age. In fact my sister, who is two years my senior, had trouble with English when she was in kindergarten, and so because of that my parents focused on making sure both of us knew English well. So by the time I was in kindergarten I had been reading in English for two years already. I grew up in an environment similar to the ones Van Wormer, Osborne, and Davis had when it came to parental reading interests. I read a huge amount growing up, mostly fantasy and science fiction novels, and my appetite for literature is the main reason I am an English major right now. I’ve always been interested in technology and am acting more on it now, but I’ve been devouring books for far longer.
Nonetheless, I definitely had a computer at home from a young age. The computer at home and computer at home were two different entities for me though. The one at school was about learning. It was still fun, we played quite a lot of Oregon Trail, Math Munchers, Math Mountain, and other games. I a similar experiences to Van Wormer and Osborne when it came to learning at a computer lab during elementary school. We probably went once a week, and it was considered a privilege. Going on the computers was definitely learning, but it was still a lot of fun. The computer at home was more a fun thing when I was in elementary school. Later one I would use it for papers, but in elementary school everything was written by hand, and in the third grade we had to write in cursive the entire year. But when I was probably five or six I remember my sister and I used to run an old car racing game on MS-DOS mode.
My parents got divorced when I was seven, and my mom got custody of my sister and I. My mom had a computer in the basement, but I didn’t pay too much attention to it. Technology was interesting to me, but my parents were fairly strict when it came to tv watching and the computer. I didn’t have any video games that weren’t my dad’s old ones until I was a little older. But when my parents got divorced my mom couldn’t keep track of me all the time, and I played on the computer and talked to my friends through AIM more and more. By the time I was in high school I was on the newer computer my mom had bought around 2-3 hours a day. My mom bought it partly for my sister and I, for writing papers for school and for doing research on the internet. But she needed to check her own email for work too, and while she wasn’t incredibly technologically savvy, it was still something she needed to use too. So growing up my relation to technology was fairly similar to Van Wormer and Osborne’s experiences, though for slightly different reasons. My parents had a computer in the house, but they didn’t end up being as strict when it came to its use.
Davis didn’t have as much exposure to computers growing up as I did, but their importance has been the greatest in college for both of us. Now my computer is a big deal in my life. I built my own computer in the fall with my own money, and I plan on it lasting for quite awhile. I use the internet pretty much every day, both for checking my email for school/work, as well as for entertainment and talking to my friends. I am also taking Computer Science 105 this semester, because I have the room and am interested enough in computers to take the class for fun.
When it comes down to it, I have come from an environment far more similar with Van Wormer and Osborne than Davis’s. My parents were middle class, and my elementary, middle, and high school education all had plenty of opportunities to use technology. My schools were all public, but still predominately white, with the majority of their students coming from upper-middle class families. The older I’ve gotten the more I’ve used technology, computers especially. It’s become an integral part of both my educational and social life, and is absolutely irreplaceable to both.
My development of technological literacy was very similar to Sally and Jill’s case studies. While I was born ten years after Sally and Jill, I was exposed to the same types of computers that they mentioned in the article, and I used them in the same ways that Jill and Sally did. The first computer I remember was a very large, bulky IBM model something that my dad had brought home from work, so that he could type and save documents. He installed a few very basic DOS games on it for me to play when I was in kindergarten. My kindergarten class, however, rarely ever used the Apple computers we had in our classroom. A few times during the entire year we had a special teacher that came in and helped us play spelling and reading games, and they were not as complex or interesting as the maze games or other games that my dad had for me on the computer at home. Sometime around 2nd grade, we upgraded our computer, we got Windows, and my dad showed me how to do word processing, how to use paint, and how to print. He bought me an encyclopedia program, several more complex games, and some reading and math games. While he intended for the computer to somehow make me smarter and help me with my homework, he never really enforced that I should play only learning games like Sally or Jill. I was free to do whatever I wanted, and often times I would play with all sorts of programs and settings. My dad stopped using the computer as frequently for work, and so I could eventually use it as much as I wanted.
The computers in my elementary school upgraded sometime in 3rd or 4th grade, but we only got to go to the computer lab once every other week or so, and usually it was only for a class lesson in how to use a certain program or do something specific on the computer. We weren’t given any free time to play on the computers, because our teachers worried we’d mess them up. I remember having 2 computers crash while I was using them on the same day in the computer lab, and I was given a punishment to be kept in from recess for a whole week, until I explained that I hadn’t done anything wrong, and that they weren’t working correctly before I even tried to open the program I was supposed to be using. My teacher was amazed that I understood enough about the computer to be able to tell her what was wrong with it and prove that I hadn’t broken it, so she gave me a piece of candy instead. My whole class was dumbfounded and speechless. I then realized that I had a big advantage over most of my classmates, and even my teacher, because I had had a lot more experience using computers and various programs than most of them had. It had never occurred to me that the lessons were fun and novel to everyone else, or that perhaps other kids in my class didn’t have computers at home just like I did, but thinking back on it, I was very privileged, and most of my classmates, and likely my teachers, probably did not have a computer at home until several years later.
In 5th grade, there was a huge jump in technology at my elementary school, not only did the whole school get several hundred computers throughout the building, some in every classroom, but they also got a lot more software, and the internet. While no students were allowed to use the internet except with a teacher watching, we did have one major project at the end of the 5th grade that required us to research something on the internet and write a paper about it. I again was way ahead of my classmates in that I knew how to download games from the internet, so I got myself into trouble by downloading a game after I finished my project early. By that time at home, we had Windows 98 I think, and I was familiar with the Microsoft Office package, and I had dozens of games which I played on my own computer after school. I knew that I was unique for having completely free use of a computer at home, because none of my friends were allowed to get or play the games that I had. None of my friends were allowed to use the internet without their parent’s permission either, but my parents never saw a problem with it, and I never got myself into any trouble with it, even though I ended up using chat rooms and search engines very frequently. Somehow, I never even ruined a computer by downloading a virus, and I’m sure Sally and Jill had issues with that in their families, even though the article doesn’t address it.
In middle school, computers suddenly were an expected tool. All papers had to be typed and formatted properly, and research had to be done on the internet, as well as in the library. We had to do many projects on computers, and we were expected to be able to use image editing software, spreadsheets, and special features like word art in word processing in order to get good grades. While there were fewer computers for use in the school, my friends started to get computers all at once at home. I got my very own Gateway 2000, which at that time was a super computer compared to the economical Mac networked computers my middle school had. I was spoiled. I used the computer for my homework, but primarily for games, word processing, and surfing the internet. I had no rules I had to abide by, my parents never checked my computer. It was only expected that I was not to break it or ruin it in any way, but by that time I had a good enough knowledge of how to troubleshoot problems or how to look up solutions online that it was hardly a concern. My high school was pretty much the same, we had economical macs in large labs throughout the building, which were much less useful to me than my computers at home, but offered me a different challenge as I started to have trouble figuring out how to do advanced things on the Macintosh operating system, or how to transfer my work between home and school.
I don’t remember when I first learned how to type. I think it was around 4th grade. We had a typing class once a week for about an hour or so in the computer lab. We would also type up some of our reports (I don’t remember any of them except the one I wrote about the state of Louisiana). Of course, if you goofed around, you would be punished, and we couldn’t do anything except type. Eventually though, we started to play educational games like Sally and Jill did. There was this game where we learned math – multiplication and division rules, adding and subtracting, etc… I think it was called Math Blasters. It was in some sort of space-y, futuristic setting and you would type in the answers to the problems to save the earth. We all really liked that game. It would get a little loud in the computer lab when we were playing it, and then the teachers would say, “If you don’t quiet down, we’re not going to play anymore.” But that’s all I remember pre-middle school.
In 5th grade, I started middle school. Most middle schools are only 7th and 8th grade, but for some reason, ours were 5th-8th grade. And I think it’s because of this, we started to really focus on technology. Each quarter, we had a “technology lab” class. For the first half of the quarter of the technology lab, we would practice our typing skills. This was pretty boring, but it got us all used to Microsoft Word. All the computers in the lab were PCs at the time as well. The second half of the quarter, students would get paired up and go into “tech corners” they choose and stay there for the rest of the quarter. Basically, these “tech corners” had different types of technologies that we could learn from and we had to complete various projects. Each tech corner had a computer station inside and you had to complete activities/lessons on the computer. For example, I remember making a race car out of wood (we had to saw it, drill it and sand it, etc) for one of the final projects. However, before that, I had to learn about aerodynamics and so on through the computer. We had to listen to the lecture on the computer and complete a quiz at the end.
In middle school, we also had to type up some of our papers. Teachers did this not out of necessity (for legibility), but rather, to help us learn how to type. However, I remember going to the library and using a type writer for a long time. I actually didn’t start typing and printing out papers on my own until we owned a “new” computer (we had a dinosaur of a computer with one of those printers that had a scroll of paper, not sheets). I don’t know why, but to me, the type writer seemed more fun. Maybe it was because I was already used to having a computer.
Like Sally’s dad, my dad too introduced the computer to me very early on. I was 5 or 6 at the time when he brought the first computer home. It was a huge, heavy, and metal looking box that didn’t look very fun to play with… until he showed me Pac Man. I have always had a fondness for Pac Man because of this. I would play Pac Man with my brother for hours on end; we would fight over the keyboard and shout at each other when playing. And it was also because of Pac Man that I began to look into computers.
My dad never graduated from college. He came from a very poor family, and even though he had a scholarship to go to college, he couldn’t afford room and board. Instead, he worked at various jobs trying to make ends meet. After he served in the army, he worked for Hyundai. There, he was sent to Saudi Arabia to construct roads. In Saudi Arabia, my dad learned about electrical wiring, which lead him to work for a computer repair store when he came to America – which is where he got our first computer.
I actually didn’t start getting more involved into computers until I saw my dad take one apart. I was 7, and my family went to see the circus. We had to swing by the computer repair store to pick up my dad. When I went to the back, I saw millions of and millions of parts – but I didn’t know what any of them were for. I remember seeing my dad at his work desk, and he had a computer open with all these ribbons coming out. It looked like a person with their intestines hanging out. This was surprising to me because I thought that computers were just boxes. I didn’t know they had things inside of them. It was this that really intrigued me – the multiple parts that made the whole.
I think I have a lot in common with Jill and Sally – but I also have a lot in common with Damon. I learned how to design websites by “stealing” code and then modifying it. I would just play with it and see what happened. I learn things by doing, and so that’s what I did. But in terms of academics, I think I’ve been pretty successful, so I think that’s really where my similarities end with Damon.
When my own literacy experiences are compared to those of Jill, Sally, and Damon, there are many differences and some similarities. Jill and Sally began using computers in school when they were in the third grade. They used educational games to learn math facts, played Oregon Trail, and worked with a word processor. Similarly, I was introduced to computers very early on. I believe my first experiences with computers occurred around first grade. I used a computer for word processing and to play various games such as Oregon Trail. One difference between the experiences of Jill and Sally versus my own is that computer usage to them was a privilege. Only those students who modeled good behavior were allowed to use the computers. My experience differed in that I was forced to use a computer as much as possible. We went to the computer lab at least once per week and were forced to perform various tasks on the computers. It seemed that computer etiquette was stressed the most. We constantly rehearsed how to access public folders, login, log out, print, and how to save our work. Jill experienced a similar use of computers when she was taught various commands to use on the green screen. By the time I used computers, we were using Windows 95. We did not have to know any commands in order to use the computers. Our word processing stressed the use of using different fonts and printing correctly either in black and white or in color.
My experience at home was very different from Jill and Sally’s experience. While their parents read stories to them and encouraged literacy practices that they could use in school, my parents spoke little English and did not do any of these activities with me. My parents stressed the importance of grades, organization, and discipline. They always made sure that my homework was completed on time and they helped me with my homework as much as they could. They never encouraged trips to the library or reading for fun. I did not read for fun. I only did the work that was assigned to me in my classes.
The memories of my first computer at home are not very clear, but I remember a computer always being there. My father probably got our first computer from work. It was the kind of computer with a green screen that needed commands. My parents used it for work and I was not encouraged to use it. Once in a while, I would use it to play Mickey Mouse ABCs. Our second computer was used more as a “family computer.” There were various programs on it that I could use for school such as Encarta Encyclopedia and the Internet. My parents never monitored my computer or Internet use. Rarely did I get grounded, and the few times that I was grounded, computer privileges were never taken away. The computer was in its own room in the house. I remember fighting over it with my brother. My mother never used it and my father occasionally used it for work.
I remember chat rooms were very popular. The popular thing was to have an AOL Instant Messenger account. I saw that my brother had one and I was so excited to get my own. Not many of my neighborhood friends had computers. One of my brother’s friends, whose house I would visit when my brother babysat me, had two computers. My brother and him would play online games together from separate rooms while I played with LEGOS. The few occasions where I was allowed to play on one of the computers, I would play against my brother and he would not go easy on me.
In elementary school, most classrooms had a computer. This computer was the teacher’s personal computer and students were not allowed to use it. There was a computer lab and a few computers in the library, whose purpose was to search the library book database. In high school, we were expected to have all of our papers typed. During freshman year, we made trips down to the computer lab and were allotted time to work on typing our papers. As the years progressed; however, it was expected that our papers be either typed at home or at the computer lab outside of class time.
Damon’s experiences are similar and different from mine as well. He noticed computers in his classroom as early as kindergarten. He enjoyed reading because his mother modeled that behavior. I did not notice my parents read for pleasure. At one point, my father was taking computer classes at the local community college and I saw him reading a textbook once in a while. He would always get really frustrated; however, because he was still trying to establish his bearings with the language. While Damon read the Encyclopedia Brown, I read short novels in school.
Damon points out that computers were never incorporated into lessons at his school. Computers were frequently incorporated into lessons at my school. We were encouraged to research on the Internet and print out pictures for projects.
As a result of their experiences with technology growing up, Jill, Sally, and Damon each pursued careers after high school in fields relating to technology. This is something that I considered as well. I always wanted to be a video game designer or an animator for Pixar. These career dreams were like those of children who want to be astronauts. I evidently rationalized to do something a little bit more practical.
Similar to Damon, I also designed web sites while growing up. It was interesting to read about the method in which he learned to make web sites. Damon explained that he would “just steal someone’s code, plant it into [his] page, and go back and just mess with stuff” (53). That is exactly how I learned to make web sites. I viewed the source for different web sites and played around with codes that were used. I enjoyed making web sites just as Damon did. I designed several in middle and high school. Those practices soon dwindled as social networking web sites, such as MySpace and Facebook came along. They make a profile for you, and so I found it pointless to design my own from scratch.
Like Sally and Jill, I was introduced to computers very early in life. One of my earliest memories of a computer is not really the computer, but a printer. I could not have been more than 4 years old, because I lived in Houston at the time. The printer was bigger than I was, loud, and printed in an ugly pink color. I was scared of it. There was always a computer in my house in the very early 90s but I don’t even remember it, just the printer. As an insurance executive, my dad never loved the computer in itself, but always had one and knew the basics on how to use it. Also with Sally and Jill, my parents were adamant about reading to me and giving me every opportunity. At least once a week, my mom would take me to the library after preschool. Even though there were weeks at a time when I picked the same book over and over, she let me do it. My bookshelves were always full of bookshelves and I don’t think I was ever denied a book. I can also remember the first time I played a computer game. My dad used a game on a floppy disc and had to put in code to make it run. (I’m thinking this was like an early version of parallels for IBM?)It was a math game that he was much more interested in than I was. I was 5 and had no patience for something in black and white.
When I got to elementary school, I was able to read and knew the concept of a computer,so when we used them in elementary school, it seemed normal. I had never thought about it before, but using a computer was definitely seen as a privilege at my small Catholic school, at least in very early elementary school.
I can also remember going to buy our “family” computer around this time. Apparently this was a huge deal. It was a Gateway 2000 and it was housed in 4 different boxes with cow print on them. Unlike Sally, my parents never placed the computer in an open area or monitored my usage. They probably should have. My friends and I discovered chat rooms and AOL Instant Messaging. Like Damon, I was interested in figuring things out on my own at this point. I was extremely curious about computers and the internet and was able to explore this.
Around 3rd grade, or 1998, computer class became more about typing, PowerPoint, and the omnipresent Oregon Trail game. The best part of these classes was that they were taught by the music teacher. The mundane tasks were absolutely ridiculous for me, being exposed to them at home. A few years later, I can remember loading some obscure software onto ten floppy discs for our computer class. What was that?
Although computers were integrated into my learning in growing up, unlike Damon, I believe that I was ahead of what the school was teaching and searched out to find my own information. While the class was working on how to make a PowerPoint slide, I was placing obnoxious sound clips and transitions in. I do think results from my parents letting me do what I wanted and the resources that were available to me. Although my parents were not always at the forefront of the computer knowledge, they provided the resources and frankly, negligence, for me to experience trial and error with computers. I definitely ruined a handful of PCs with viruses in my years. To this day, my dad will call me and say, “The computer upstairs isn’t working. What did you download?” “Dad, I haven’t been home in a month. I didn’t do it.”I still find myself doing really dumb things with a computer, but luckily, I have a Mac that is not susceptible to viruses. Just recently, the big buzz has been about Chat Roulette, essentially the chat room 2.0. Totally disgusting and dangerous. But, it’s a lot of the same creepers and kids that were on it in 2000. Curiosity kills. Warning to anyone reading this, I am not endorsing Chat Roulette, it is disturbing.
I think it is really interesting that Damon, Sally, and Jill all chose computer related careers. I think that in almost all careers now, they are computer related. In teaching, I love finding new ways to use technology in the classroom. Students can now learn so easily from different software. We also must anticipate what their lives are going to be like. Jill, Damon, and Sally all are only a little more than ten years older than I am, but their experiences were very different. The internet has changed the way schools and education functions and we can only anticipate what is going to be next.
Even after reflecting about my experiences, it’s hard to recall a specific memory about when I learned to do something. I can remember getting the PC and then being bored in computer class. Where was I practicing the skills in between? I guess it is the same with reading. You don’t really remember the process, only the kids that you get really annoyed with who read slowly when reading aloud to the class.
My experiences with computers are in many ways similar to that of Jill and Sally’s. They were introduced to computers in the third grade. I am not quite sure when exactly I was introduced to computers, but I’m almost positive it was first grade. There were a few computers in the class room, and there was also a computer lab in the school. The experiences described by Jill and Sally in terms of using computers in school are very similar to my experiences. I do not remember ever using a computer alone. That is, I had a computer for myself, but there was always a teacher in the room supervising. I did the same activities Jill and Sally describe. We learned how to shut down and boot the computer. We learned the most basic things about word processors, and we would paint and play educational games. I remember having the same attitude as Jill and Sally about computers in elementary school. They were fun, and I would try and behave in such a way as to earn some time on the computer. Jill and Sally mention that they did not necessarily think that they were learning from these learning games, but felt that they were simply games. I felt differently about these learning games. At a very young age, I was always on top of the latest video gaming systems and videogames. So, I thought the learning games on the computers were terrible; however, they were still more fun than doing class work.
Where my experience significantly differs from Jill and Sally’s is when her parents encouraged literacy in terms of a formal education. Sally and Jill’s parents read books, magazines, newspapers, and fiction to them. They did this in an effort to encourage them to do well later in school. I do not remember ever being read to as a child by either of my parents. My mother does not speak much English, and my father is simply not the reading type. Unlike Sally and Jill, I was never encouraged to take trips to the library.
My experiences once again resemble those of Sally and Jill when their parents’ economic conditions allow them to purchase a computer. I do not remember exactly when this was, but I know I was at a very early age when my parents bought my brother and me our first computer. Actually, we did not buy it from a store, but from a friend who built computers for a living. This is important because it soon sparked interest in my brother to learn about computers and how to build them. A few years later, I would also share this interest with my brother. For a few years, my brother and I were full-on computer geeks. We would save money to buy each individual chip, cable, disc, fan, etc. to build our own computers. We became so knowledgeable on building computers that we would custom build computers for friends and family, and they would pay us. I still use the desktop computer (typing this response on it) I built with my own hands during high school. My parents are still not very savvy with computers even though they experienced the phase where my brother and I lived and breathed computers. The three individuals in the case studies all decided to pursue a career involving computer technology. During high school, this was also my plan. Since I was so into building computers, I was interested in areas dealing with hardware. However, late in high school I became very interested in the software aspect of computers and began to acquire quite a bit of knowledge on it. As soon as I started college, I stopped researching further into computer technology, and I became less interested in pursuing a career involving computers. Later, a computer science course made it easier for me to drop the idea of pursuing a career in computers.
Reflecting on my experiences with computers, I always felt very confident working with them. During high school, I had internships where I worked with a couple IT departments, and was able to learn more than the average high school student. I can really relate to Damon’s case because of how he was able to learn so much about computers on his own. This is pretty much what I did as well. About ninety percent of what I knew, I learned from doing research on the internet. It was all there.
Growing up the information technology I primarily used was the desktop computer. Although at the time I never fully understood what the computer was capable of, it just seemed to become another tool for writing and gaming. I became aware of this technology the more and more they became available; when computers, video games, televisions, cell phones etc began to flood the department stores. I grew up with these types of technologies always around, and over time they seized to possess any new qualities. I was born in 87’ a decade roughly after Sally and Jill, and even then still shared similar experiences as they did. I remember educational games, too. I remember in the early 90’s when I was in kindergarten, there weren’t many homes that possessed a computer. The library was the main place that I used the computer in my earliest childhood hood stages (5-9). I too remember playing the game Oregon trail, and still to this day have random urges to download it. The main computer from what I can remember were apple’s, and IBM’s (there were more Macintosh’s in the library I believe.) But other games, like math blaster were also included in an array of other learning games. In relation to my other friends at the time, I would say that my family adopted the computer a much earlier time. This is primarily because my father received his computer science degree from I.S.U and was now working at State Farm, in computer data organization department. In a sense, I cannot remember a time where I didn’t have a computer and I share a lot of similarities to Sally and Jill.
From that said, I learned how to use these technologies from school, the library and from my father. I don’t quite remember when I began to work with computers consistently; however, my father was a computer analyst at State Farm Insurance Company, as I stated before. My father was the main influence in my life, and introduced me to new technologies and information structures. And he also would encourage my brothers and sisters to use them as well; he saw a great benefit in the computer world. (Better jobs, faster work etc…) I then began to fall in love with all things “technology.” I believe I have acquired every video gaming system created at this point and by the time I was a freshman in high school I was already buying parts to build my own computers. This love for technology has carried with me through the majority of my life. Now, I feel that I am more aware of technological advances; and even how and why certain information technologies are used. However, I began to despise the computer world after my first year of college.. My father strongly encouraged me to pursue a career in computer science, and at the time I loved computers so much that it only seemed natural. Then it hit me. I found out that composing software (code) for a computer is much more tedious and difficult than puzzling together actual hardware pieces. After doing poorly in computer science, I switched my major to English with a creative writing influence.
My father wasn’t very pleased with my efforts, mainly because he wanted me to do what he did after college. He holds pride in being one of the first black computer engineers at State Farm. In high school I was always torn between two types of friends: the nerdy kids, and the popular people. As I know look back and critically think about information technologies, I found that they do possess race and gender specific stereotypes. Many of my other African-American friends did not have the ability to use technology the way I did. And I said briefly earlier, I think that because I have been bombarded with technologies my whole life, I seem to frequently want to turn my back on new technologies; it almost like eating cake everyday for 22 years, you will eventually get sick of it, but it a more physical sense it becomes a part of you. Today, I feel children may be facing a similar problem, but hopefully computer and computer technology will not entirely consume them.
When I was younger I would say I could only view the world as it developed around me—not how it was before or what the world could be like. I feel that this unawareness forced me to consider technology (computers) only within the context of what I knew, the present; information technology was based around my own knowledge about the subject. Even though I do not possess a full understanding on what information technology is, after a few article readings I realize that information and technology are relatively limitless. The way the terms were used around my household made information technology seem expensive, shiny and brand new. I was raised in the middle class, so disposable things never counted as information technology. There is a portion of class that is very involved with technologies; however this leads me to believe information technology is slightly different for everyone, but access was differently not limited completely.
In retrospect, computer technology in my experience has been a part of my everyday life. Usually when I think of nostalgia I never take into account my over prescribed technological upbringing. I would argue that I am always in effort to purge my life of these technologies, but it seems to be harder every day.
I found this narrative to be extremely interesting. In my family, I remember getting a computer, an early Macintosh, when I was relatively young and how my whole family, perhaps barring my mom who does not really care about technology, thought it was about the coolest thing ever. We used to play on it all the time and I would constantly watch my brothers playing games on it. As I got older and started going to school computers became a larger part of my life. I do not really remember my elementary school so well, but I do not believe we really used computers there. There may have been one in each classroom, but I am not entirely sure.
However, my middle school went from fourth grade to eighth grade and there were always computers there. Each teacher had one computer in their room for their use and then from 1-3 others for student use. As well, there were multiple computer labs within the school. One lab was in the library and there was definitely one more, possibly two, in another area. Each of the labs was equipped with the iMac in a variety of colors. One thing I always remember was fighting to get the color you wanted since there were limited selections of certain colors; the blue one heavily outweighed the other four. Similarly to Sally and Jill, we used the computers to play a variety of learning games. Yet, as they both said too, it never really seemed like we were learning, but rather just that we were playing games. There was one that was supposed to improve your typing skills. You were a racecar driver and to go faster you had to type words. I remember just trying to beat my friends and not even really realizing that I was actually learning to type at the same time.
In addition to having computers at school, my family was updating our household computer fairly often as well so I was always savvy enough. I never got into computers enough to learn programming and such like the three in the reading did, but I knew how to do a lot on a computer. Around sixth grade word processing became a given for homework and we even lost points for not typing things in certain classes. As well, we started learning how to properly surf the Internet. For our research projects we generally went to the library and received a tutelage of which sites to use to find the information we wanted for this assignment and which ones not to use. I remember there being a big controversy when my social studies teacher messed up the website for an assignment and sent everyone to whitehouse.com instead of whitehouse.org. Rather than finding information about the white house and the presidency, we were all brought to a pornography site. I believe there were quite a few upset parents over that one, although even more excited (no pun intended) students.
Needless to say, growing up technology was always a given for me. My family could afford to buy computers for our house and the schools I attended always had computers available and also provided people to teach us how to use them. Rather than when Sally says her teachers hardly knew more than the students, while that was the case with some very savvy kids, the majority of students learned a great deal from the teachers. This continued on when I got to high school where we had no less than seven computer labs, each with somewhere from 25-40 computers in them. Some of these you could only go to if you were with a class and the teacher had signed up to use the lab, but others the students could use at any time. And, again, each classroom had at least one computer in it that could was primarily meant for teachers, but students used as well. There was even a graphic design classroom that had an entire lab just for teaching students graphic design programs such as Adobe Illustrator and PhotoShop. I took one of those classes my sophomore year and it was a lot of fun, but difficult too. They did not just expect basic knowledge, but graded hard and pushed you to really utilize the technologies. I also took architecture classes for two years where we had computers for the entire class that had different drafting technologies on them.
For me technology was never an issue, I had a multitude of different sources of technology both at home and in school. While the uses of technology were relatively the same for me as it was for Sally and Jill in middle school, as I got older, the resources open to me were much greater than they had in their high school days. Yet, the comparison between my life with technology and Damon’s is completely different. He had hardly any interaction with technology when he was younger, but then became very involved with it in college. On the other hand, I had a lot of opportunities to interact with different computer technologies, but never moved past the relatively basic aspects of the computer. I wish I could learn a bit more, but do not know of anyone who could or would teach me some of the more complex computer issues and, in all honesty, I don’t know if it is really worth the time since I don’t have a tremendous amount of use for knowledge of things like programming.
It is interesting to see how my relationship with technology is not too different from Sally and Jill’s, but almost the exact opposite of Damon’s. I think because I had the early introductions to computers I became complacent with my knowledge and never felt a need to learn more. I believe that if I hadn’t had so much exposure, I would want to learn more now.
As an adult reflecting upon my interaction with computers as a youth I never realized the effect they had. This was probably due to the fact that when I was growing up my family would have been considered middle-class. We lived in a two-floor house that we shared with my uncle and his family. This was convenient seeing as how our house was actually owned by my grandmother’s. However, don’t get the wrong idea because we were not poor by any means but the idea of cheaper rent was highly favorable to my parents. As such my family was allowed to make greater expenses, one of these being a desktop computer. When it first arrived, my eyes dropped because this new technological addition opened a plethora of new possibilities for me. For instance, whenever my mother went shopping for computer parts or accessories my brothers and I typically went with her. Therefore I gained slight knowledge with computers but only through the games that came with the computer. So when the ability to exercise my skills at home came, it only boosted my eagerness to learn. Even though it was my parents’ computer, which limited my accessibility, my brothers and I still benefited from having it available.
My lifestyle did not always include computers, in fact I didn’t use computers until I got into the 4th grade when I switched from public to private school and attended St. Mary’s Catholic school up north. This change was significant for me in two very distinct ways. First off, this was the first predominately-white school that my brother and I had ever attended so there were very few African-American’s who attended thus making us feel out of place. Secondly, this new school offered the use of computers. This introduction was beneficial because it gave me a head start with computers and further increased my level of interest to learn. Since I was already an eager child I took advantage of every new opportunity to learn. My mother even enrolled my brother and I into a mentoring program called Midtown which offered tutoring services that helped us with both our educational learning, technological and social skills. Yet, despite the advantages this new school offered it was not enough to convince neither my mother nor us to remain and finish middle school.
As a result of racial prejudices that arose and the level of stress placed on my mother from making that arduous trip at 5am every morning, we only attended this school for 2 years. However, within those two years, attending a private Catholic school made a huge impact in my life regarding technological advances. For example, I appeared on channel 5’s morning news to report the weather for Chicago. I was formally introduced to computers and their endless benefits and I also was taught the proper hand technique and placement for using computer keyboards. Yet, despite these personal advances in technology my skills on the computer never truly progressed until I went to yet another school (non-Catholic) on the west side of Chicago in a predominately black and Latino neighborhood.
At my new school, Marquette West, there were not many computer classes but there was a computer lab. I seldom used it since most of my assignments were handwritten but I was occasionally in there to type a paper. Due to my previous experience with computers I felt that my skills with one were superior to those of a novice. However, since my experience was limited I wasn’t as confident in my computer skills as I would have liked. My solution to this problem came from my parents when they got my brothers and me our own computer. Initially, as with any siblings, there was mayhem between us because each of us wanted to use it all the time whether it was for work or entertainment. I remember I used to play Oregon Trail, Number Munchers, Solitaire, Minesweeper and even Sonic. However, one program in particular that was a personal favorite of mine was actually not a game but instead a typing program.
As I mentioned earlier I was taught the proper hand technique and form used when typing. I learned this through an elementary based typing program but now I had a new more advanced program. This new program had the same purpose and strategy but instead it was more challenging because it forced you to improve your timing and speed based on a high score. It measured your typing speed and the ability to use proper form with the correct fingers. This was my favorite because my mother told me it would prove the most useful in life and seeing how she was an English teacher I figured she was right. In fact, to keep me interested in this program she actually played it and set the high-speed score, which I used as my motivation. Sadly it took almost 2 years for me to set a new high score.
Like Sally and Jill, I was also introduced to computers at a young age. However, we never used computers in my elementary school, and I don’t think anything was ever required to be typed up at home. Maybe our school district didn’t have the funding or didn’t think it was important; I’m not sure. It would’ve been really fun to use computers in school in order to further our education, and I know there a lot of cool games kids can play on computers and even iphones that helps them learn. Yet, I don’t think I missed out on the educational computer games because I played them at home. We have always had a computer in our house for as long as I can remember. My mom was (and still is) a court reporter and my dad was completing college at the time, so it was definitely a necessity for both of them. My parents also bought my younger brother and me many computer games that helped us learn. I cannot remember the names of most of the games, but I began playing them as early as four years old. Many of the games I played were catered to whatever grade you were in at the time, but it never felt like I was learning because they were just fun games and I always wanted to play them. I never took an actual typing class, but I had a computer typing game. It taught you how to type, yet it was in the form of games, so it wasn’t like I felt forced to learn how to type. It was a very helpful tool. My parents would also help me type up papers, and sometimes even suggest in grade school that I type them up even if they weren’t required to be typed. I think that it was helpful that they stressed the importance of using computers at an early age so that I was always familiar with basic concepts and had adequate typing skills.
Once I entered middle school, papers were required to be typed and we actually had a computer lab we could use. And just like Jill and Sally, you had to be on your absolute best behavior while using them, and not everyone was allowed to use them. We also could only do certain things on the computer or could only visit specific websites. The teachers began showing us how to perform online research in eighth grade, which was a very useful tool when I entered high school. Once I got to high school, everyone was using computers all of the time, and we had many different computer labs available to use. Sometimes we would do research in the labs for lengthy research papers, with our teacher monitoring us and was available for us to ask questions to. I became much better at typing in high school because I was using the computer so much more, and not just for games, e-mail and chatting, or just surfing the internet. In eighth grade and through high school, im-ing was very popular among my friends, and that also helped me type much faster, and I was on the computer more so that I could talk to all my friends at once, so it was more fun than the phone. In high school I took four years of Spanish, and once a week, every week, we went into the computer lab and played Spanish computer games and completed Spanish language exercises that corresponded with the chapters in our Spanish books. So that was the most in-class computer experience I had throughout high school. It was very helpful, and I always remembered the language better after we had exercised what we had learned all week on the computer. The day before we had a test we would be go into the computer lab and review everything on the computer. I benefited so much from the Spanish computer games, and I’m so glad we had them. It was also nice to have a break from regular class lecture, which I think gives you a more comprehensive learning experience anyway. Sometimes you don’t learn or remember as much when you simply listen to a teacher lecture almost every single day.
Jill and Sally had families who constantly encouraged literacy and were educated, and I can definitely relate to that because that is also how my family was, as well. My mom did not attend a university, but she received higher education training for two years for court reporting and had to acquire a license in order to be a court reporter. My dad has a bachelor’s degree in English and political science, and also a Master’s in marketing research. So, education and reading has always been important in my household. Sally mentions that her parents encouraged her to go to the library, and my parents also used to take me to the library all the time, and they have always told me they will always buy me a book if I want it. (Whereas I couldn’t have whatever toy I wanted whenever I felt like it). They never turned down an opportunity for a learning experience for me, or knowledge that I would gain through reading. I feel very thankful to have always had encouragement with reading and computers, and that my parents had enough experience with computers to be able to teach me about them. Especially since my elementary school did not offer any computer training and kids were left to fend for themselves. Luckily, I was never left behind.
My elementary school experiences were pretty similar to that of Jill and Sally’s. My first experience may have been a year or so sooner, but games were the way the computer was introduced to me. It was also considered a “priviledge” to use the computer, my teachers would not let the kids that misbehaved play games like the rest of us. I never played Oregon Trail, but pretty much everyone I knew had when they were younger. However, my family life was slightly different from their upper-middle class upbringings. My parents both finished high school, but my mom worked as a secretary and my father was a carpenter. With three young daughters and a mortgage to pay, money was pretty tight. My parents have never seemed really interested in reading, and as a child I never saw them reading, and they did not read to us very often. This is probably a huge factor in my reading problem; however, once it was addressed, my parents were very involved in getting me to catch up with the rest of my class.
I know we had a computer of some sort when I was in grade school, but I cannot remember the kind. All I could remember was that it had a black screen, but, unlike Sally, I never really got to play with it until I was older. When I did get to go onto the computer, it was a newer computer, and I was only able to play the games that were on the desktop, like Jezz Ball and Solitaire. We did not have “learning games”, and it is funny to think about because whenever we went to visit my Aunt, my sisters and I would play educational games about spelling and such and we liked those more! My parents never stressed the importance of learning technology, and they still do not seem to have a clue to this day. By middle school, I was allowed to use the computer whenever I wanted, used it to type papers and had my first screen name when I was in fifth grade. My parents were extremely strict when it came to the internet. They had strict parental controls on our screen names and we were only allowed to use the internet for twenty minutes a day. If we were bad, they would take off time or simply not allow us to go online. They kept me on the same parental controls (with an extended time limit) until I was eighteen years old! While they were afraid of “cyber” danger on the internet, they also wanted to limit our time to avoid viruses. My parents often encouraged us to play outside as well. They did not see the computer as a learning tool like Sally and Jill’s; rather, they saw it as a toy that they did not want their daughters to play with too much.
Like Jill and Sally, the computer has been in constant presence throughout my college career. I do not know what I would do without it. I write emails every day, listen to music, use the internet, write papers and so on. However, technology has become more advance since they were in college. For example, banking online and turning in homework online and using social networking sites were not as frequently used when they were in school, if at all.
I pretty much have nothing in common with Damon. I have never moved, living in the same house in Carol Stream all my life, and while my parents had to work hard to make ends meet, it was nothing like Damon’s broken home. Like I had said before, my family was not very big on reading the any of the three students’ families were, although I gained a love of reading once I learned to do so. I certainly did not get to UIUC on an athletic scholarship and have never been the webmaster for anything. Our focus in college is opposite; Damon is concerned with the technology of the classes whereas I am more concerned about the material in the class, with web design very low on my priority list. I guess the biggest difference I have with these three students is that I simply am not as engrossed in technology as they are. I feel that I know the basics of using a computer and the internet, but that is all and I am fine with that. However, my past few semester at UIUC, and the technology classes I have taken, have been beneficial and given me insight into all the technology that I am missing out on. Am I curious? Yes, but am I determined to learn how to program and all that technological jargon? Not so much, but I still want to learn fundamentals that I can use in my classroom. With the way technology has played a role in students’ education nowadays, I will have to stay up-to-date on the most recent technology that I feel my students should be more aware about, even if I do not use it myself.