These past few months have been a large learning curve for me in the land of the internet.  I grew up when computers were first being put into classrooms.  I can remember being in 5th grade and having one computer for the whole grade.  It was such a privilage to get to play a game on it.  As i moved through junior high i remember the fun of playing Oregan Trail.  Did anyone really make it all the way through the game or did everyone die because of lack of food?

As my school years went on, I took keyboarding and learned about word processing.  What a joy that class was to take.   Do you remember typing the letter f over and over and over? Then you got to move to j, j, j,j,j,j,j,j?

In college we had to make a power point presentation and that was really hard, time consuming, but oh so cool!  Those were the times that every part of Microsoft was new and exciting for those of us who didn't get to use it very often.

I started my teaching job and feel in love with email.  What a wonderful toy that turned out to be, especially for people like me who don't exactly like to use the phone.  Search engines were my life for everything from teaching lessons, finding a house, and information about new cars.  I learned the excitment of bidding on ebay and how to shop on amazon.

And then a miracle happened for me, a masters educational program that I could take completely online.  I was pregnant with baby #2 and baby #1 was just over a year old.  How wonderful it was for me to be able to take my class during nap time or after bedtime.  But I had to learn in the span of one day how to attach programs, join a thread, and turn in my homework.  It was the fastest I have learned how to post something on the internet in my life.

I graduated from that program, and even watched my graduation ceremony (that I couldn't attend) with an online video feed. 

This year I started reading blogs from other people, feeling like they were my friends.  I knew their lives, their stories.  So I joined as well.  This community has been a lifeline for me to share my story and my life.

I've also joined my space, face book and am even losing weight with the support of friends online.
I have the internet on my cell phone and use it when I get lost on a trip.  I use search engines daily to learn about growing my flower garden to the dimensions of a typical basketball court and information about my dog's surgery.

I can go to the coffee shop, McDonald's or the mall and continue to check my email.  It's an amazing place to be when I think of the Apple II E computers we started on.  Gotta love technology.

How did we go