Moving On Up

As I stated before, I got to teach an introductory computer class at the college where I was working. Amazingly, they did not use Commodore computers in the college. That’s right, I was “Moving On Up” – just like the Jefferson’s theme song! I was getting a new computer from Apple, Inc. There was some excitement and a bit of fear as I thought about a new computer lab and new classes to teach. Here is a picture of the first Macintosh computer. Since this was the only Apple computer I had ever seen in Atlanta it is what I expected when I was first told about the class.

Amazingly, when the computers arrived on campus for the new lab they looked nothing like this old Macintosh. They were Apple notebooks similar to the one in the other picture. The ones we got weren’t quite this nice or large but that was okay since we had state of the industry computers in our lab. Wow! Apple was the leader in the educational sector during this time period. In fact, they made some great deals for those in the field of education. Almost every school could get free software with the computers and the computers were heavily discounted to get them into circulation. The programming language used was called LOGO and was pretty simple for most users. I was ecstatic to have these great computers and they allowed you to do so much more than the older versions of Macintosh or Commodore. There were other computers in use but they were primarily being used by various government agencies and were cost prohibitive for schools and home usage. Again, I was excited!

When the computers came in for the new lab the President of the college gave me one to take home so I could “master” it before walking in front of the class. I was hyper and played with my new toy for days on end—morning and night. I learned everything I could about the computer hardware, the operating system and the available software. To be honest, that didn’t take long. Computers were just glorified typewriters for most of society. The only advantage offices saw was documents could be saved on the floppy disk. For those of you who have not seen a 5 ¼” square floppy disk I am including a picture for you. We used to keep big boxes of these lovely things all over the computer lab and in every office. Remember, we were state of the art! The majority of what I was supposed to teach was keyboard skills (formerly known as typing), word processing and spreadsheets. We had not even considered programming, databases, presentations, etc. As a side note, the machines still did not do “cut and paste” or many of the very simple things we take for granted now. I was still excited! I was a little worried about teaching keyboarding skills since my only experience was a 9th grade typing class and typing my own papers in college. Not exactly the best training for a new class.

The first day of class arrived and the students were awe struck when they entered the new computer lab. They had never seen so many computers in one place and only two of the 30 students had a computer at home (see Blog on Commodore). The shiny white notebook computers (no additional monitors or a mouse) with the blue and silver apple were there to open a new door to these and many other students. I was mean that day (according to my students) and I am grateful we didn’t have “ratemyprofessor” or “myprofessorsucks.com” back then. I wouldn’t let the students use the computers until we went over the “house rules” for the new computer lab, how to use them correctly (there was a real process for turning them on and off and the order you did things in mattered greatly). But eventually we got into the class and everyone got to “play” on their computer. I got to be part of changing lives through technology that day. I had no clue where it all was going, but it is nice to look back and know that I helped to open doors for men and women who are now employed in Silicon Valley and the Technology Triangle. There is no better feeling for a teacher than to know you helped to broaden the horizons of your students.

In The Beginning...a Commodore!

Technology literacy is a vital part of being fluent in the world of information. We are bombarded every day with more and more and more information. Sometimes it seems overwhelming and sometimes it is a wonderful gift—really depends on my personal mood that day.

When it comes to technology and the information age I entered kicking and screaming, much as my parents said I entered the real world. I have always wanted to stay on the all important “cutting edge” of what is new and exciting in the world so when I was in college I enrolled in a computer class. The class taught us how to punch holes in cards (key punch machines) and use them to store and retrieve information. That was it. The cost of the cards was astronomical for most companies and the machine that punched and read the cards was cost prohibitive. Wow, I really feel old just typing those lines.

Our professor took us on a field trip to the Human Resources section of the local Social Security Administration in this central GA city. The facility was the size of the UCF Teaching Academy building and one half of the building contained the computers that kept the government operating (according to our tour guide). Each computer was the size of a car standing up from bumper to bumper. They contained huge rolls of tape with all kinds of important and personal information on US citizens. To keep the machines operating correctly the rooms were freezing cold. I was amazed and a little bit frightened. Amazed at the power of the computers and what they could do for us and frightened by the power of the computers and what they “knew” about us.

Not long after completing my Master’s degree I purchased my own computer: a Commodore 64. This was an 8-bit home computer, released in 1982, costing $595 each. The Commodore 64 was the “cutting edge” technology of its time. I was excited! I had no clue how to use the thing but it looked good in my office at home. I was teaching at three colleges (all part time) and knew the Commodore 64 was going to make my life much easier. It did. I learned to do word processing and found the fascinating world of computer games. I was hooked.

One of the colleges where I was teaching was a private school in Atlanta. They asked me to teach a new computer class since I was the only person on faculty who actually owned my own computer. I agreed and they ordered a room full of Apple computers. Apple introduced the PowerBook in 1991, which established the modern form and ergonomic layout of the laptop computer. The same year, Apple introduced System 7, a major upgrade to the operating system which added color to the interface and introduced new networking capabilities. Did I fail to mention that the original computer in my life was black and white (actually black and gray)? I was in heaven. Now I had a powerful computer that students could use to type their own papers and I no longer had to read bad handwriting! For the first few years that was about as good as it got.

Over time the computers changed and more and more people got them in their homes. Computers now did more than just word processing and saving your materials. Now, you could cut and paste! Probably doesn’t sound very exciting to you but it was great for a teacher who was tired of making up tests over and over and having to start from scratch every time you taught a class. Then I became complacent. I moved from classroom instruction to academic administration and didn’t stay on top of the developments in the world of computers. I liked WordPerfect 4.2 and saw no need to learn anything else. I was happy in my world.

My world changed. For a few years my instructors had told me of the new company, Microsoft, who had great new products. They told me I needed to learn the new products and keep up with the times. I saw no value in that; besides Word 5.1 was doing a good job for me. Then it happened, the powers that be decided when we built the new administration building for the college we would go to an all Microsoft format. No more Word Perfect for me. I quickly changed my attitude from complacent to “must know everything.” I took classes (of course, they were free for me), cornered my computer science instructors and kept them hostage in my office, and learned Microsoft (at least enough to function). Wow, I really feel like I was in the beginning...you know, with God and dirt and light. But it really wasn't all that long ago when we were still using punch cards.