I read a fascinating article about technology today in Newsweek (September 24, 2007). The article, "Power to the People," by Steven Levy, comes under the aegis of "The Boomer Files: Technology." Levy's point is, had it not been for the baby boomers and the counterculture of the 60s, then technology would have stayed in the possessive hands of an elite who wore suits and ties and restricted access. But boomers such as Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Mitch Kapor saw the possibilities of the moment and would not be left out. They had the know-how and vision to write their own software and open the world of technology to people and empower them. Like boomers, says Levy, "the computer assumed a leadership role, while still maintaining an unruly edge." (p48)
According to Levy, to early computer specialists, the proposition that people would want a computer for their own was preposterous. I remember, not so long ago, thinking that way. Why in the world would I ever put out all that money on something totally foreign to me, like math, that would need to be upgraded every few years and maintained for a lot of money? Why would I do that to myself? I stayed as far away from computers as possible--they were for geeks.
But boomers Jobs, Gates, etc., truly envisioned a PC revolution that would expand the minds of ordinary people. To their credit, they were right. Last night while talking to my son via skype and using code to get my weblog linked to my class wiki, I felt my mind expand. I really felt it -- the InterNet.
I learned from Levy's article that Google's unofficial motto is, "Don't Be Evil." (p50) I'd never heard that.
Levy helped me see the confluence of technological advancements and innovative boomers. In so doing, my disdain for technology is being replaced by admiration for the boomers who work hard to make it a tool for empowerment. May my mind expand at a rate fast enough to empower myself into passing this class.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
How I feel about working with technology #2
Last night's task was linking my blog to the class wiki. Five steps were recommended to reach this goal: 1. click on "edit this page" at top; 2. type name and name of blog; 3. highlight name of blog; 4. click on link icon (world with chain around it); 5. press SAVE button on right-hand side of page.
Getting oriented is always the first challenge--i.e., remembering urls, passwords, usernames. How do people remember all of these things? I write them down and I still have trouble. I mix them up. After the umpteenth try, though, I found the wiki and my blog and set to completing the assignment.
I did as directed. My blog link did not, however, look like the others'. There was no green arrow. The line under my blog link started under the second letter, leaving the first letter with no underline. When I clicked on it, nothing happened.
I was not surprised. I felt no anger. Same ol' same ol'. The night would be long. I was tired. Oh well. If at first you don't succeed, try again. I repeated the steps two more times with the same result.
Then the voices started: so what else is new? You never do anything right the first time. Everyone else did the assignment. I bet they didn't get stuck. What am I doing in library science?!?
I didn't know what to do next, but I knew I couldn't quit. So I waited. Then, to my astonishment, I heard a muffled bubble sound with a little pop at the end. What was that? - I wondered. This orange box appeared on the lower tool bar. I clicked on it. Up popped my son like a genie out of a bottle! Magical, wonderful SKYPE to the rescue! My brother had introduced me to skype last spring, but I never used it. Somehow, son Sasha got my contact info (obviously from my brother). I clicked on the green telephone receiver, and, voila! there he was, beautiful boy, asking me how I was. I told him my problem, and he said, "Ma, we're on skype so we can talk and still use our hands to type." So I sat talking into my computer (!) while typing in code to link people to my weblog. Step by step, he followed me through my blog and the wiki. He said that he could see my classmates' hypertext (http) mark-up where their blog links were, but that there was none at mine. He described the others' link format, and I copied it and added it to my blog info: [[http://www.sueparblog.blogspot.com/|SueParBlog]], and, lo and behold, I managed to link my blog to the class wiki.
It does not feel like a victory, though, because I had dead-ended, as usual, and would have sat there, dumb, had my son not called and seen the problem. Why couldn't I see the mark-up that he saw? Why didn't the 5-step directions work? How could I ever have completed that assignment on my own, given what I knew?
I have moved one step away from the brink of flunking. But what will I do when I start my first job as a librarian? I must be better at technology, so, no matter how stupid I look, I will keep swimming.
Getting oriented is always the first challenge--i.e., remembering urls, passwords, usernames. How do people remember all of these things? I write them down and I still have trouble. I mix them up. After the umpteenth try, though, I found the wiki and my blog and set to completing the assignment.
I did as directed. My blog link did not, however, look like the others'. There was no green arrow. The line under my blog link started under the second letter, leaving the first letter with no underline. When I clicked on it, nothing happened.
I was not surprised. I felt no anger. Same ol' same ol'. The night would be long. I was tired. Oh well. If at first you don't succeed, try again. I repeated the steps two more times with the same result.
Then the voices started: so what else is new? You never do anything right the first time. Everyone else did the assignment. I bet they didn't get stuck. What am I doing in library science?!?
I didn't know what to do next, but I knew I couldn't quit. So I waited. Then, to my astonishment, I heard a muffled bubble sound with a little pop at the end. What was that? - I wondered. This orange box appeared on the lower tool bar. I clicked on it. Up popped my son like a genie out of a bottle! Magical, wonderful SKYPE to the rescue! My brother had introduced me to skype last spring, but I never used it. Somehow, son Sasha got my contact info (obviously from my brother). I clicked on the green telephone receiver, and, voila! there he was, beautiful boy, asking me how I was. I told him my problem, and he said, "Ma, we're on skype so we can talk and still use our hands to type." So I sat talking into my computer (!) while typing in code to link people to my weblog. Step by step, he followed me through my blog and the wiki. He said that he could see my classmates' hypertext (http) mark-up where their blog links were, but that there was none at mine. He described the others' link format, and I copied it and added it to my blog info: [[http://www.sueparblog.blogspot.com/|SueParBlog]], and, lo and behold, I managed to link my blog to the class wiki.
It does not feel like a victory, though, because I had dead-ended, as usual, and would have sat there, dumb, had my son not called and seen the problem. Why couldn't I see the mark-up that he saw? Why didn't the 5-step directions work? How could I ever have completed that assignment on my own, given what I knew?
I have moved one step away from the brink of flunking. But what will I do when I start my first job as a librarian? I must be better at technology, so, no matter how stupid I look, I will keep swimming.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
How I feel about working with technology
I hate to say this, but I have technophobia. When I am faced with a new technology, I close up shop like a turtle. I try to find someone else to do it while I watch. Then, I tell myself that, because I watched someone else do it, and because I followed the steps and it appeared clear to me, I understand it. Of course, I know that I do not know how to do it because I have still not done it; watching someone do it is not the same as doing it.
Technology makes me feel inadequate. old. stupid. incompetent. slow. never good enough. subpar. inferior. Trying something new with no exit, (like this blog assignment), is almost nauseating. I am afraid of it.
It was not always this way. When I started graduate school at Bryn Mawr College, I felt like the world was my oyster; I could do anything. And I almost did -- coursework, three kids (5, 4, and 2), teaching, Russian choir directing. But then came word processing, the dissertation. Writing my papers by hand in Russian had been allowed in all my classes up to that point, but now, the diss had to be word processed. So, I went to Sears with my kids to buy a computer because I had no money and Sears represented to me -- a person raised in the rural Midwest -- an American mainstay company that would sell me a cheap yet reliable computer. We carried that computer home and I typed on it like a typewriter. No problem. All went well until one day it began to whir, and the whirring didn't stop, and all was lost--I hadn't backed anything up on a floppy. I didn't know from Adam what I was doing. I'd never had a technology class, had never encountered technology before. I didn't know anyone in the area, as I'd picked up and moved there on a few weeks' notice. And I was too inhibited to ask undergrad Bryn Mawrters for help. I couldn't show them how dumb I was. I didn't even know where the lab was. I went to class, did my work at home and took care of the children. I was hellbent on writing that dissertation and so, blindly moved forward, ignorant as a fool.
When the computer crashed, I had to go to the lab and word process. The first time I went, I didn't know how to save, so I forced myself to go to the Help Desk. The only way to describe the look on that Bryn Mawter's face when I asked her how to save was disgust. She impatiently and haughtily showed me how to "Save as". It made no sense to me. Why would I want to save something "as" something else when I just wanted to save? She kept trying to convey the importance of tracking versions of paper writing by organizing them in a folder and identifying each version with a "1" or a "2" added to the file name. I just did it, without understanding, to free us both from discomfort. I was clearly a lost cause. I suffered through years of such treatment; it never varied. I came to hate the Help Desk in a deep and dark way, the way they hated me.
I realize now how traumatizing it was for me, but I was in a situation where failure was not an option. So, I got married instead and threw myself into a new life in a new city, where I was part of a congregation playing a pivotal role using all my personal skills with Holocaust survivors who had never seen a computer, much less used one. I was back on a loving team in a friendly community. I was in my element, and the diss and technology moved to a back burner.
I like working as part of a team. I like people. It's being alone with a technological assignment I have no background knowledge of that is depressing. Even if I know what I'm supposed to be doing, actually doing it feels like an unattainable accomplishment. I completely understand how library patrons and staff feel when encountering new technologies because I am them.
If this entry goes through properly, then I will gain an ounce of confidence. I am trying to overcome my fear. I have come a long way. I need to conduct meaningful work in the 21st century on my own. Going through library science school has been my way of forcing myself to learn. I pity my profs, esp. my 401 instructor. But, G-d bless her and everyone else at IUPUI--they have treated me with compassion. I will always be grateful.
I will get to the finish line. It won't be pretty, and my knees will be shaking the whole time, but I will arrive.
Technology makes me feel inadequate. old. stupid. incompetent. slow. never good enough. subpar. inferior. Trying something new with no exit, (like this blog assignment), is almost nauseating. I am afraid of it.
It was not always this way. When I started graduate school at Bryn Mawr College, I felt like the world was my oyster; I could do anything. And I almost did -- coursework, three kids (5, 4, and 2), teaching, Russian choir directing. But then came word processing, the dissertation. Writing my papers by hand in Russian had been allowed in all my classes up to that point, but now, the diss had to be word processed. So, I went to Sears with my kids to buy a computer because I had no money and Sears represented to me -- a person raised in the rural Midwest -- an American mainstay company that would sell me a cheap yet reliable computer. We carried that computer home and I typed on it like a typewriter. No problem. All went well until one day it began to whir, and the whirring didn't stop, and all was lost--I hadn't backed anything up on a floppy. I didn't know from Adam what I was doing. I'd never had a technology class, had never encountered technology before. I didn't know anyone in the area, as I'd picked up and moved there on a few weeks' notice. And I was too inhibited to ask undergrad Bryn Mawrters for help. I couldn't show them how dumb I was. I didn't even know where the lab was. I went to class, did my work at home and took care of the children. I was hellbent on writing that dissertation and so, blindly moved forward, ignorant as a fool.
When the computer crashed, I had to go to the lab and word process. The first time I went, I didn't know how to save, so I forced myself to go to the Help Desk. The only way to describe the look on that Bryn Mawter's face when I asked her how to save was disgust. She impatiently and haughtily showed me how to "Save as". It made no sense to me. Why would I want to save something "as" something else when I just wanted to save? She kept trying to convey the importance of tracking versions of paper writing by organizing them in a folder and identifying each version with a "1" or a "2" added to the file name. I just did it, without understanding, to free us both from discomfort. I was clearly a lost cause. I suffered through years of such treatment; it never varied. I came to hate the Help Desk in a deep and dark way, the way they hated me.
I realize now how traumatizing it was for me, but I was in a situation where failure was not an option. So, I got married instead and threw myself into a new life in a new city, where I was part of a congregation playing a pivotal role using all my personal skills with Holocaust survivors who had never seen a computer, much less used one. I was back on a loving team in a friendly community. I was in my element, and the diss and technology moved to a back burner.
I like working as part of a team. I like people. It's being alone with a technological assignment I have no background knowledge of that is depressing. Even if I know what I'm supposed to be doing, actually doing it feels like an unattainable accomplishment. I completely understand how library patrons and staff feel when encountering new technologies because I am them.
If this entry goes through properly, then I will gain an ounce of confidence. I am trying to overcome my fear. I have come a long way. I need to conduct meaningful work in the 21st century on my own. Going through library science school has been my way of forcing myself to learn. I pity my profs, esp. my 401 instructor. But, G-d bless her and everyone else at IUPUI--they have treated me with compassion. I will always be grateful.
I will get to the finish line. It won't be pretty, and my knees will be shaking the whole time, but I will arrive.
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