Technology Autobiography
January 27th, 2007I bought my first laptop in Singapore in 1988 and brought it to the refugee camps in Indonesia and Thailand. I created systems, initiated new program protocols, and wrote teacher feedback and reports all at rapidfire pace. That touch-typing course I took in high school came in handy as I became more and more productive and creative in my job during those years in the camps. It was also helpful that I was in graduate school in 1983-85 where I had to do homework from a mainframe and become reasonably fluent in using early technology.
Fast forward to 2000 and I learned to teach a philosophy course online through the Virtual High School. I learnd a lot about creating a secure online environment for groups to know and trust each other. For three years I taught that Eastern and Western Thought course and absolutely became addicted to functioning online. I felt closer to those students, who hailed from from Venezuela to Japan, from Oregon to North Carolina, than those I was seeing everyday in school. It was a very intimate atmosphere, and one rule we had in the class was that although we posted a detailed profile, there were no photographs allowed. So the overweight student, the short kid, the non-white kid, and the blonde bombshell all stood on equal footing by the power of their words. There was no one interrupting when the low-status kid wanted to say something. His thoughts, his poetry, his opinions would elevate him to the one everyone responded to and wanted to interact with. This is one thing I love about the idea of blogging too.