I was interested in technology since I was introduced to the computer as a little girl in third grade. Little did I know how interested I would become, though, as I grew older. The majority of my memories concerning technology circulate around high school. During my time at school, when everyone was getting into new and snazzy phones, I was taking a Web Design class and fascinating over the new computers. In the class, I created my own website on a topic of my choice (Geisha in Japan), and learned HTML and CSS. I was already pretty computer savvy, so I knew my way around the computer pretty well. Right now, I'm still learning and my friend is teaching me Flash and the programming language used for animations so I can create flashes to use in my classes (rather than power points). I used Photoshop in high school (and still use it now) for art, and I am an avid gamer. So having a top-notch laptop is important for me to get my gaming on. I never quite learned Excel, though, to my disadvantage, but I'm sure with time and effort, I could easily pick it up.
At my school site, I was dissuaded from using technology in my class. The computer in my class was super old (256 mb of RAM!) and hardly functioned well, if at all. The computer labs in the library were nice, but every one was using Vista, which - in my opinion - is slow and not as great as XP or 7. It look about 10 minutes to get students to just sign into their accounts, which took away time from them doing research or the assignment I wanted them to do. I did not have an ELMO in my classroom, and thus I couldn't utilize that form of technology, as well. I did experience some students who did not have a computer at home, or who did not have Internet at home (and thus could not upload their essays onto Turnitin.com), and so certain accommodations had to be made for those students.
And that's my story!
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