I am from the generation when kids were sent home from school in the middle of the day so they could watch “The first man on the moon” on our scratchy old black and white TV’s. The school only had one TV, situated in the “TV room” and to where us kids were herded in every so often to sit silently in front of the Channel 2 test pattern before being subjected to a flickering “ABC for schools” program. My daughters who are 7, 5 and 5 just love hearing that story - before they even started school they could “drive” the remote control for the video and DVD player and were proficient with a computer mouse (thanks to the ABC website). Now my 7 year old who is in Grade 2 at our local primary school uses Google to do her homework (I don’t think she has her own blog yet or using any other form of social software but I will quiz her on it tomorrow!)
Apart from the introduction of colour television to Australia and watching the "Jetsons" on TV technology just passed by me for many years. We were still using printed logarithm tables up to year 11 but could use a very expensive and enormous calculator in year 12 for basic calculations.
At Deakin University in the late 1970’s Science students were required to do a subject called “Statistic and Computer Concepts” – at the time I could some value in the statistics section but computers – what a waste of time!! These were the days pre personal computers – surely no ordinary person would find the use for a computer, they were noisy, unpredictable machines that required their own room and you needed to understand binary numbers before you could use them! All I remember of this subject is being told how to program in BASIC by a lecturer writing down lots of unfamiliar notation on a blackboard (with chalk!). Completing the assessment was a nightmare with 100+ students trying to get some time on the 20 or so terminals, I recall lots of plagiarism with the few “computer nerds” happy to supply the answers for extra computer time!
Although I did science and maths methods at Melb Uni during my Dip Ed year in 1982, I can’t recall any reference at all to computers in the classroom.
I can remember living in a share house in the early 80’s and we had a video player but can’t remember us actually watching anything on it – were there video hire outlets then? When I began teaching (at a secondary school) in 1983 we were still handwriting handouts and using the very messy carbon printing or more often just writing a blackboard (with chalk!) full of notes for the students to copy down.
I had a 7 year break from teaching but by 1992 I was back and using a Commodore64 (sharing a house with a journalist) and had learnt to use Word perfect (well sort of) – WOW my teaching handouts looked great, I could make changes to the originals and then photocopy them at work. We got a PC in our staffroom in 1995 to share among 10 staff but there was no problem in getting access to it – I think I was the only one “brave” enough to turn it on, we were given no PD in how to use it – it was basically just sink or swim.
Things moved quickly from there, I had a work email and a home email address by 1996, was a net surfer and confident with using Word to produce and store documents. Returning to my TAFE after maternity leave in 2001 I was thrown into the deep end and began teaching online (using WEBCT).
Which is what brings me here – online teaching and learning has not been well accepted by the staff (that will be a topic for another blog) or students (another blog!). Over the past 6 years online teaching and learning (via WEBCT) has gone through a variety of guises with a variety of departments taking on the cause before there is an administration restructure and it moves on to being someone else’s responsibility. In the past I have been timetabled for an online class only to be told a week before that it is to be delivered face to face, with no real explanation given. I am unaware of any staff currently using any other forms of social software to deliver or assess units. Lots for me to learn and many to convert.
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3 comments:
Very interesting post. For my part I came on the scene a little later, I remember having an Apple IIc computer in my primary school classroom, where we played lemonade stand or hangman in Italian.
High school saw some time in the computer lab, where I was able to figure out how to log on to the network and delete the English essay of one particular student who used to give me a hard time.
University saw me get an email account but not know any other people with one.
My dad tells me how he had to write out a computer program for his PhD, something about punch cards I believe. And how he paid for his thesis to be professionally typed up. Nowadays he works from home, his prime source of information being Internet sites.
When I began teaching 5 or 6 years ago, I thought I was pretty knowledgable, I knew my way around most types of software. I certainly knew more than my colleagues did. However just starting this course and looking up Web 2.0 and social software has made me realize that I have fallen behind in terms of what is going on.
Even a simple thing like blogging, I was aware of them but hadnt really read any, has rekindled an interest in how to use technology in the classroom.
I too remember the carbon printing in primary school - it stank!! Year 7 (1990) we had several apple IIe computers in the library to use logo and play lemonade stand. I owned an atari and played frogger. By the time I was in year 12(1995) the school had pentium I comupter's in the library. It amazes me just how incredibly fast technology has advanced in such a small window of time.
Ahhh.. the memories. I also remember the excitment of my fortnightly trips to the lab of Commodore 64 machines. We would put in the cassette type load: with some $ signs or something and then we were gold miners for the next 45 mins. I also remember my first teaching job (only 4 years ago) where I was confronted with a blackboard and chalk for half of my school week. You sure do get to like light coloured clothes.
I too was delighted with making beautiful looking worksheets on the word processor, all the while forgetting that students creating for themselves makes for a much better learning experience. Web 2.0 now I know, and now I love the interactivity, the simplicity of self publication, the range of multimedia. I discover new aspects everytime I read a blog or watch one of Ted's videos (when my school lets me, not big fans of you tube).
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