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My earliest memory in my experiences with technology is my dad buying and bringing home a computer for the whole family. At the time, I remember being wowed by the machine and loved the screech and hum that came every time you turned it on along with the internet; and remember the frustration any time my mom had to use the phone.

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My early experiences with technology and our fancy new dial-up at the time most revolved around educational computer games. I remember hours spent on Jumpstart solving early addition math problems or correctly pairing a vocabulary word to a definition in order to ensure the frog-like character could cross the river safely; and much frustration when I could not do so without a splash in the water.

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Technology Experiences in Early Schooling

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Technology Experiences in Early Schooling

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While I cannot remember specifically the names of the few programs we used in early elementary; I do vividly remember the thrill of "computer lab day" in elementary school. Ultimately, while I do not exactly remember what I participated in or what I learned; I can certainly say my classmates and I were heavily engaged in whatever task was at hand during these blocks of computer access.

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As my years in elementary went on, I do remember specifically engaging in a constant digital pursuit of traveling along the Oregon Trail- and more importantly- surviving. It is within this early memory that I truly remember gaining a deeper understanding of a topic through technology as my experience with the game (likely along with my gifted teacher tired of answering my questions when he placed me on the game) prompted me to complete research on my own of the topic of the Oregon trail and the many pioneers who braved that journey. It was only in this assignment that I began to reflect upon this experience, and has started my thought process on interest-based student research projects which can be supplemented by the many educational programs we have available today.

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During the same late elementary years, I was gifted with a Nintendo GameBoy and later upgrading to a Nintendo DS. Technology became a source of somewhat mindless entertainment for my brother and I through these devices as we completed level after level of Donkey Kong or cared for our virtual puppies on Ninten-Dogs. Along with many other handheld or video games adapted for TV such as the "Dream Life" console. Technology began to transform for me into a primary source of entertainment.

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Moving into my middle school years I cannot recount many experiences with technology in school; and is at this point that technology turned more from a form of education (or even entertainment), into a point of communication and socialization in my eyes.
During this period, many of my peers began to have their own AOL instant messaging accounts. After much pleading with my parents; and a resounding refusal to allow me to have my own MySpace page, I was permitted to create an AIM account. Here, hours were spent communicating with friends and classmates; and all in a brand new language of "brb", "ttyl", "g2g" type messages; creating a brand new vernacular for ourselves. These experiences were my first glimpse at how communication would forever be reshaped by technology. Instant connection to anyone, anywhere, anytime; though the depth of those types of connections are still in question.

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In my last year of middle school, I was given my very own personal device- a "Juke" cellphone pictured above (due to the fact that I began walking home from school by myself). I remember this as quite a luxury as up until only a year or two before; my father only had a cell phone for work purposes and my mother had none at all. The ability in having my own device at my fingertips, no longer interrupted by the shared use with other family members allowed me to carry on conversations with my friends and peers instantly (and often constantly). This in turn helped to further my view and use of technology as a means for communicating and socializing with peers.

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As I entered high school, social media began to morph beyond the well known but soon-to-be outdated MySpace pages and into platforms we are more familiar with today such as Facebook. I was permitted to have a page, still under the watchful eye of my parents; and again my web of communication and group of peers I socialized with grew through such means. During this time is also when I began to see the language change again as expression came not only through words and acronyms, but we began to communicate through "likes" and  emojis, creating a universally understood language through the use of symbols and facial expression to represent feelings and actions. Again, reflecting upon this topic and time it is pretty incredible to think of witnessing basically a new form of language- through technology.
The use of social media also allowed me, as well as many others at the time; to be able to connect with family and friends far away and keep up to date on their lives in a quick snapshot way without waiting for the postal service to send pictures or spending hours on the phone catching up on current events. Though again, while social media has allowed me more connections overall with those around me; the depth of these connections seemed to become more and more shallow with each interaction online. "Oh yeah I saw that on your page" became second nature in conversation, and still is with social media more accessible than ever before.

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Upon entering school at USF, I felt I was well versed in many forms of technology. I could create a document, spreadsheet, or presentation; knew of many sites to access information, and knew plenty of entertainment resources accessible through technology. It wasn't until entering my elementary education classes at USF that I was able to begin to see the many resources and far more possibilities that can be provided through the implementation of technology. With the guidance of my professors in my undergraduate program I learned to navigate and master the use of these online communication, learning, and presentation tools for my own benefit and with many ideas on how to then bring this into my own classroom.

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Despite my many experiences with technology in my own personal education, communication, and entertainment; I have struggled in finding ways to best implement these technological resources in my own 5th grade ELA classroom.
In years past, access to technology has been limited at my school between computer lab time being scheduled at most once a week and only the availability of four run-down laptops in the classroom. This combined with the expectation of using such time by completing online assessments mandated by the district or completing a certain number of minutes as suggested for each student based off a district-bought computer program. While there is value in many of these programs; I ultimately found it difficult to implement the use of technology effectively that allows all students to have access to technology. However, that has now changed with 1:1 access at my school site.

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During this past 2019-2020 school year we were fortunate enough to gain enough devices for each of our students to have their own iPad in class. Having both this number of devices, and being provided professional development training on both the basic functions of the iPads as well as the many accessible features and apps of the device has allowed me to more easily integrate technology in my classroom. All the while keeping in mind the purposes of 1. Education and learning 2. Communication with classroom peers and myself (the teacher) and 3. Entertainment and engagement; as we use technology in our own lives day to day. I am by no means yet an expert on the use of technology in the classroom; but the ability to explore and experiment with the use of technology has allowed me to see many successful (and equally unsuccessful) practices in the classroom and engage my students in ways that I have been unable to before. This also provided a great starting point for yet the other experiment we participated in towards the end of this school year- distance learning.

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While distance learning has proven to provide many challenges both in the ways of being a student and teacher; it has also provided many lessons in flexibility, understanding, and planning. It has also ultimately shown me how important technology is; and particularly in those three major aspects which impact your life in your use of technology: entertainment, communication, and education. Technology has been more important to us as educators, students, and ultimately- humans than ever before. It will be interesting as we continue to keep a watchful eye on technology and how it continues to impact our world.