21 Year Old Dinosaur

Hello Friends,

Nice to see you made it here in one piece. I personally faced a long and insufferable struggle, dating back to the 1990's when this thing called the "world wide web" first came onto the scene. I remember my hesitation with clarity. It began with an unimaginative and ultimately removed babysitter, who introduced my sister and I to AIM. She did so by setting us up with these newfangled screen names, that would eventually allow us to chat mindlessly for hours with our peers. We shunned the outdoors and took solace in the dim light of the basement and continuous buzz of the PC duel processor. We never bothered her to play tag or feed us, and we never asked her when Mom would return home again. We were webheads, webbing away, forming relationships behind a screen, skipping out on sunlight and thinking it was awesome.

With time came a license and a renewed desire to seek human contact. We used our cars to unify a generation disbanded by technology and slowly but surely began to build relationships face to face. However, there was still a divide. Some could not peel themselves away, and relished in the wonders of the internet. They learned to program, blog, wiki, stumble upon. They read the paper online, watched TV online, and diligently edited their online identities.  These actions were justified with webcams. "It is human contact, see, even Aunt Sally uses Skype." I resisted. I holed up under a rock from the 20th century and silently panicked. I felt helpless. The world was under construction and I was a historic landmark that could not be altered.

I first realized I was losing the battle not only when I was reluctant to embrace technology, but also when I began to cling to obsolete forms. I was a myspace using, AIM chatting, Walkman Wearing, girl with a home phone and a VCR living in a world compatible with Facebook, iPods, pads, and phones all of which would download my soul if I let them. I didn't care, I persevered.

My passive resistance came to an abrupt end when I joined the education program and the basic flip phone upgraded to an iPhone whether I wanted it to or not. I was no longer left to my own inhibitions, but rather forced to be a role model, a molder of young minds, a scholar and an educator. Terms like "media literacy" and "wikispace" and "sakai" and "gmail" began to stifle me with their simplicity. I was warned repetitively that if I did not buck up and submit, I would be left behind. Not however, before my web savvy students trampled me and picked the flesh off my bones to fuel their jetpacks. I knew if I wanted to teach, I had to learn.

It is with a heavy heart that I embark on this quest for understanding. Please know, that it was not because I wanted to but because I had to.

Until next time,
Ms. Lavoie