BevillBlog

Confessions of a Digital Native

I started to type this reflection on my word processor, but it just wasn’t working. I had outlined and brainstormed about what I would write, but nothing was coming out. After staring at a blank document for hours, I tried something different and started typing away on my blog. And it worked! Maybe I’m more comfortable with the idea of reflecting on a blog, or maybe I just turned off the TV at the same time I started writing on the blog (probably just a coincidence). Blogging this reflection just seems to make a lot of sense to me. There is definitely something cathartic about posting thoughts and memories in a public forum, without regard for audience. But in this case, I think the content of the reflection really fits the medium. What better place to write about technoliteracy than on a blog?

I love computers. I’ve had a fascination with computers ever since my first Apple II. It has been interesting to look back at how computer technology has grown up with me over my lifetime. My generation can truly claim to be the first true digital natives. And that is something to be proud of, I think. We are comfortable with the ever-changing world of technology, because rapid change is normal for us. Many older people tend to be uncomfortable around new uses for technology. And using new technologies in any field can be daunting. Education, a field that is dominated by a much more traditional establishment, may even be the most resistant to drastic technological changes. So this puts my generation in an interesting position. We are digital natives living in a world dominated by digital immigrants. And it is up to us to provide the sparks of change in our respective fields. At least, that is one of my goals. I definitely feel like I tried to do some of that during my time as a high school teacher.

Education

A little over a year ago, I really started to research some of the ideas behind using computer technology in the classroom. I was a high school English teacher, and I was looking for something groundbreaking. My research really began during the spring semester of 2006, when I first heard about DOPA, a piece of legislation ostensibly designed to protect children from on-line predators, but which could have prevented schools from capitalizing on many new Internet technologies in the classroom. In the previous year, I tested out a few ideas of using discussion forums and blogs with some of my classes and the results showed a lot of promise. So this legislation really affected some of the things that I wanted to use in my classroom. Especially since I wanted to use the next summer to prepare some really adventurous ideas for my classes in the fall.

After seeing legislation that might prevent me from even exploring the options of using social networking websites in my classroom, I simply had to learn more about the pros and cons of using Internet technologies in my classroom. I knew that people are often afraid of things they don’t understand, and since online social networking was such a new concept to everyone, I was sure that my district would be extremely cautious in allowing me to experiment. So I made sure to cover my bases. I began reading the blogs (and even books) of some great educators who have used multiple Internet resources in their classrooms. I took note of what worked and what didn’t work and tried to come up with some of my own ideas to try out with my students the next year. Over the summer, I prepared a teaching demonstration through the Upstate Writing Project on using Wikis and Blogs in the classroom. I later presented a variation on this demo to my department at Hanna and also to a group of teachers studying technology and education at Daniel. I prepared an extensive memo to my District Office describing the technologies that I would be using in the classroom and the importance of using them. That was a battle I had to fight, as my district had blocked any website that included blogs, forums, or photo sharing. My memo did not convince the district to remove the blocks altogether, but it did provide a precedent for using social networking sites in the classroom. I felt like I had a success in convincing some people who were intimidated by the technology that I wanted to use. My preparation over the summer was absolutely worth it, as I had an amazing year in technology with my students. We created an online Wikibook for our Film studies elective, posted video narratives on Youtube, and blogged about seminal films in various genres. Every day, I learned something new about the exciting opportunities available for an educator online.

Now, I have an opportunity to take what I have learned while teaching high school to students at the college level. My GTRs and I are using blogging technology as the bridge between the lab and lecture sections of 103. One of my goals is to see my students become comfortable with blogging. They should understand that blogging isn’t simply about writing your thoughts on a webjournal, although that can be part of it. Blogging is about community. Commenting, linking, discussing. If the students are able to do that, then I’ll consider this 103 blogging experiment a success. And I hope to learn a few more things, as well. I’d like to get better at facilitating that blogging community. And I have a couple ideas for how to do that. One of my favorites is to use a blog of my own to highlight specific posts and comment threads. Use my blog as a sort of central forum for the others. As the semester progresses, I’ll see how that idea takes off.

Fun and Games

Growing up around technology, I’ve always enjoyed the entertainment opportunities that computers and video game consoles have provided. I can’t remember a time in my life when there wasn’t a computer of some kind in our house. I was born in 1981 and by 1982, my parents had one of the first Timex Sinclair computers. I’m not sure exactly what they could do with it other than some basic programming, but it was just the start of a long chain of computer technology in the Bevill household.

The first system I remember was the Atari 2600. I was very young when we had this gaming system, but I still remember some of the great games on it. From Pitfall to DigDug to Dr. J vs. Bird, I loved playing some of those classic games. But that first console didn’t quite measure up to my first experiences with an actual computer.

Our first official home computer was an Apple II GS that we got in the mid to late 80s. By this time, I was old enough to actually know what to do with a computer, so I remember it vividly. We had some fantastic games on that machine, like The Oregon Trail, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, Spirit of Excalibur, and Scorch. My dad was still pretty big into text-based adventures. I wasn’t a huge fan of those. Being eaten by a Grue in the dark wasn’t quite my idea of a fun game. But trying to save Johnny from Dysentery was the pinnacle of video gaming.

Our first IBM PC came soon after the Apple II. We could play many of the same games, but the DOS-based 486 was a different experience from the earlier Apple. Learning how to navigate a DOS command line was challenging, but worth the effort. I added more games to our library including Civilization, Colonization, Castles, and even started branching out into RPG games like Ultima and Might and Magic. By the early 90s, my taste in computer games had been firmly rooted in strategy and rpg titles. Even today, I rarely play anything else.

This may have been my favorite part of this assignment. I loved those old systems and games. I also had every member of the Nintendo console family (and still do), but there was just something charming about those early computer titles. Remembering some of these titles has been an absolute joy. So much so, that I downloaded an emulator called DOSBOX last week to play some of my old favorites. I’ve had to brush up on some of my old DOS commands to do it, but it has been a lot of fun. And those games are as great now as they were back then.

A Digital Lifestyle

For me, the most exciting thing about technology is learning something new. My most recent example of this is my switch to Linux. Over last Christmas, I decided to try out a Linux operating system just to see how it would go. So I backed up my wife’s computer (of course, I wasn’t going to try this on my computer yet), and gave Ubuntu a whirl. I used as much information as I could find on various forums and wikis and finally had a working Linux laptop. After trying things out for a few weeks, I decided to get a little more ambitious and set up our desktop as a dual-boot machine with XP and Ubuntu. It worked like a charm. I even tried to do some things on the bleeding edge of open-source technology by installing desktop effects like Compiz-Fusion. I eventually purchased a new laptop for myself with the sole intent of installing Ubuntu on it. I made sure the hardware was compatible and took the plunge. Today, only one of my computers uses any proprietary software, and that is the dual-booting desktop (try as I might, I just can’t get any Total War games to work correctly on Linux). With the ease of use, security of the system, eye-candy, and overall wonderfulness of Ubuntu, I wouldn’t go back to a Windows world for anything. It was challenging to learn the quirks of this new operating system (including relearning some terminal commands that I hadn’t used since the DOS days), but very rewarding.

Learning new things and changing with the times has been a theme of mine in relation to technology. I was the first kid in my class to bring in typed homework assignments in elementary school (my favorite was a story about “The Greatest Knight in the World”, complete with Print Shop Pro graphics and Old English font!). I grew up on Ami Pro, Works, Word, and now OpenOffice. I remember making the switch from the Mac O/S to DOS to Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, Vista, XP again, and now to Ubuntu Linux. Today, I use computers as my main source of news, communication, banking, shopping, bill-paying, writing, education, archiving, and entertainment. I can’t even imagine how I could start over in an off-line home.

I still remember having to install a second phone line in my parent’s house so that we could connect our 14.4k modem to Prodigy and talk on the phone at the same time. Now in my own house, I have a desktop, two personal laptops, my wife’s work laptop, and the Nintendo Wii all hooked up to a wireless network at broadband speeds. I first saw the Internet through Prodigy 16 years ago and the changes since then have been immense. But I think I came in at just the right time. Technology was growing up right alongside me. I’m proud to be among the first generation that can truly call themselves Digital Natives.

Life on the web can be frightening to those who haven’t grown up with it. But I have the map. And I’m enjoying the ride.

September 18th, 2007 Posted by Scott | Uncategorized | one comment