Technology and I

I was more happy than impressed by Bonk's book. I have a long story with technology and I need to let you know about it for you to fully understand my thoughts.

Technology and Yacine: Year One

My relationship with computers started when I was 10. I was at my friend's house Patrick when I saw his Amstrad CPC-464. I instantly fell in love with it and the games I was playing. So much that his mom had to tell me I had to go home because they were going to have dinner... I had lost notions of time (and manners I guess).

II bothered my parents night and day for two years before I was gifted an Amstrad CPC 464 for my birthday. To this day this remains the best memory of my early years. This computer used programs recorded on what is now antique cassette tapes. To play the games, I had to play the whole cassette which an annoying screeching noise. I played games with my computer as much as I could.

I also subscribed to a computer magazine to get all the news and updates regarding my new machine. The cherry on the cake was the geeky centerfold. In the middle of the magazine was located a detachable booklet with hundreds of lines of coding. I typed them meticulously and when saved I would obtained either a very basic game (like Pong or Pacman), or some kind of flashy animation. After several times I started understanding that some of the code referred to the sizes of characters or to specific colors. I toyed around with the code for my own pleasure. At that time I understood that computer languages were just like any other language. They have their own syntax that needs to be followed strictly (or else you end up with a bug) but there is also room to play with adjectives and adverbs to modify the sentences and code.

A Few More Dates

After this initiation there were many other steps along the way:

• In 2000, I learned the basics of HTML programming on my own and created a simple website (using frames, links, pictures, and backgrounds) without nay interface.

• For several years afterward, my exposure to the now defunct TV nourished my thirst and interest for everything computer.

• From 2001 to 2005, I worked as a freelance French translator for a company based in Atlanta. I worked totally online and to this day I have never met my employers (everything was done over the phone and via the Internet).

• In 2007, I built my first computer from parts I chose myself.

Influences

In addition to this there are quite a few influences in my life that prepared me for the technological revolution we are living. Through futuristic role playing games like Shadowrun I was exposed to “deckers”, surfers of the Matrix (Internet) who plugged themselves in the system using a jack located on their temple. Internet actions performed at the speed of thought!

In this game, characters have also access to neck implants directly connected to the brain. These implants are the equivalent to memory card reader. Plug in a memory in your neck and your brain has direct access to the knowledge uploaded to the drive. In a way this is a direct metaphor of Bonk's idea that all knowledge is available at fingertips (or neckplug).

If you add the following movies: Tron (I am so old I saw it at the theater), Ghost in the shell, Gattaca, Terminator, the Matrix, you can understand why I see today's advancements as simple realizations of long awaited fantasies.

The Social Bits

There is another chapter in my life that nurtured this need for technology. I have had a long distance relationship with my wife. I was in France and she in the USA. Now that I am here, I have a long distance relationship with my family and friends. There was no myspace or facebook in 1999. Being an ocean apart, we had to rely on chatrooms (virtual rooms where totally random people would chat - totally extinct), Yahoo! Messenger (very popular at the time), and the utensils they offered (such as video and voice chat). I remember that when I moved to the USA in 2000 I gifted my most tech savvy friend Benoit a Webcam. Wow, that was ten years ago already! Even if the definition on the camera was not great it still did the job of keeping us connected (it was still USB 1.0 technology).

I also got hacked in 1998 just a few months after buying my first computer. I was surfing the web when my monitor went totally black. My CD tray opened. And something along the line of “Keep cool, you are being hacked” appeared on the screen. Someone who introduced himself as a Canadian computer science student told me he was simply testing what he had learned in school!

Compiling

You can see why I was not surprised by the many programs and tools presented by Bonk. When the Internet was created I expected all of the fantasies that had been part of my geeky world to come to life. More than the Internet, I think it was the first brain implant that allowed a blind man to see that made me realize the Future was here!.

To be totally honest, there are actually a few tools exposed by Bonk that I was not aware of. I knew about second life but did not realize its educational aspects. I look forward to using second life in my classroom even though I will have some serious work to do because most of my students do not have computer access. I think that using second life will motivate and engage my students like never before. I already downloaded and installed the program on my machine. I will have to pay to build my own space in second life but it will be worth it. I have built levels in PC games before using game developpers' interface (Neverwinter nights, Freedom force, ...). I had a look at the second life building tools. They look very similar and it will not take me long to get used to them.

However, there is one thing that is holding me back: the technology funds of Randolph County Schools and the peanuts that are handed to the ESL department. It is disheartening to know that my students and I do not have access to these resources.

On a more personal level, I am going to sign up for livemocha. There are several languages I want to learn and was not able to because of time restraint: Spanish because it is my wife's native language and Arabic because it is my root language (I lost it because I did not use it).

As a whole, I am more than ready for these changes to affect my life and my teaching. I was impatiently expecting them!