Weekly Blog - week of January 15

Blog – Chapter 1 Response
This first chapter on “The Big Picture” was a good overview and introduction to the idea of “educational technology”. Since I have not been in the schools in over 20 years it was a good overview to get me caught up on what has been going on in the area of technology in the schools. I can tell just from the few classes I have taken in the Master’s program at UAB, that technology is so much different! When I went to college in 19896 – 1990, personal computers were just coming into the picture. I still did most of my papers on a type writer. My father worked for IBM at the time and I did end up getting a PC JR towards the end of the college years. But WOW! I am amazed at how much has changed. Just doing this “blog journal” for example and the way we do the discussion board for class. My first class at UAB the instructor wheeled up her lap top and connected into the projection system and I was like OK things are a bit different than my undergraduate years, when they were still using transparencies.
Since my undergraduate years, I have been in the technology field. I worked for a company name ExecuTrain for 7 years and trained adults on software packages like Window, Lotus 123, WordPerfect, MS Word,Excel, PowePoint, Paradox, Harvard Graphics, and Corel Draw. When I first started we still had to set up each PC after class with 5 ¼ floppy drives. When I left in 1997 we were using a Ghost Image to restore our software and data set and it ran at night. We LOVED it! Then I went to work for ADP Dealer Services. My division installs proprietary software for small to midsize car dealerships. My job is to train our clients on how to use the software and help with “pre-install” activities. This means we do setups from the old system to the new system to try and ease the adjustment for our clients. It is surprising that I work for a data processing company yet we don’t have a lot of the latest technical tools. When I went there in 1997 I had to convince them that they had to get some type of virus protection software. I could not believe they did not use any. However, they have gotten a lot more technical in the past fives years due to industry demands. Our system was the first dealership program to offer a program on Windows and the first to offer a system via the internet. So luckily I have had some exposure to the technology through the years. But there is still so much I do not know and from looking at everyone’s list, there is tons of software out there for education that I have never heard of. I am looking forward to learning more about it.