Describe Your Experience with Technology; What Do I Hope to Come Away With?

I have experienced technology my whole life.

Growing up my siblings and I all had our own computers in our rooms. I grew up emailing, Google-ing, and MSNing, playing networked Warcraft II games, and using computers to complete many assignments. My parents had one of those brick cell phones for a long time, and then the phones got smaller and smaller. Our internet connection moved from dial up Juno to broadband Qwest.

After high school graduation I got my own laptop that I have filled with programs that I like to use - a ZSNES player for my Super Nintendo games, dozens of photo editing programs, and I'm now trying to get a DOS Box converter so that I can again play Warcraft II on my computer. I helped my roommates set up our wireless internet router, and a few years later helped my husband do the same thing.

A few years ago I became interested in blogging. Blogstalking was the gateway drug to this, and I have converted many friends to the blogging way as well. My friend taught me some basic html code stuff, and now I can create basic blog layouts like the one I've used here on this blog, using digital scrapbook pages and elements from here, among other places. I also have two other blogs that I write on; one for my personal journal use and one for my photography portfolio (see blog link on side).

Almost a year ago I figured out how to embed Youtube videos into my blog, and that changed my world. Seriously. Man I love technology.

To sum up, I feel pretty technologically savvy. I use webcams, Googledocs, Google Reader, and am learning how to use Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. Just this past fall I purchased Microsoft Word for the first time - always using Wordperfect 12 was getting to be too much stress. At work I use Excel, and lots of programs online from BYU to do financial transactions with the click of a button.

Basically it will be interesting for me to see how I can use all of this technology in the classroom effectively. That is what I am most excited about. I'm not expecting the internet to be re-invented for me, I just want to see how I can use it best for educational purposes.