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In my previous post, I talked about how my daughter used ICT to put together her research project and presentation. It prompted me to reflect on my own experiences of ICT in the classroom, and it made me realize how vastly different my own learning was to that which my daughter is experiencing today, nearly 30 years later.



When I did grade 1 in 1983, we had no experience of computers in the classroom at all - even the Commodore 64 was still a high-end piece of technology, and the school only had one of those.  Since Dad was a teacher at the school, he got permission to bring it home for the holidays. After typing in the correct command sequence, you could play games on it, and even write your own programs in BASIC.

Best. Holidays. Ever.

I did not see a computer in the classroom until I hit grade 7, when we had an Apple IIGs in our classroom. In our freaking classroom. It was the most awesome thing ever. It had a high-end colour monitor, and had a cutting-edge disk drive that could take the new 3.5" floppy disks. Smaller, and more memory! And not only could you do word processing with formatting, but you could even play Carmen Sandiego!! (Which, by the way, is a prime example of an engaging ICT used for education)

Could it get any more awesome?!?

Although I actively use technology myself - I have a Samsung smartphone and an Android tablet, and I use a desktop PC almost every day - I have had to adapt to the new culture of technology as it emerged (and is still emerging). As much as I don't want to admit it, I'm one of the "digital immigrants" that Prensky talks about. I haven't grown up being immersed in the digital world, so I will always have to deal with that coloured viewpoint of technology that I developed from growing up when tech was still in it's infancy. I have to fight to overcome the initial resistance of new ideas, and I have to consciously embrace emerging technology. Becoming an early adopter is something that I know I need to be, but I will have to work hard to adopt this mindset.