Cannot Afford to Lose

Firstly, I must say I have little trust in a computer's hard drive even though I have never had a computer crash on me. I know too many people who have had that happen, in which I try not to rely on the computer for important things. However this assignment encouraged me to make sure I back up any pictures I have that are worth saving with a method other than my hard drive. I put most of my pictures on to CDs for future reference. I'm often afraid of losing the physical picture also, so I have resorted to CD for many years now since I have began traveling more.
As for important documents, I do have several jump-drives or removable storage that I use. I find a problem with both CDs and jump drive methods however due to the fact that I often lose things. So when I have a document that is very important: tax returns, professional documents, etc, I have a bad habit of storing it solely in an email. When I save the original document I will then send it in an attached email to myself and leave sit in my inbox. Yes, I said inbox. I do not even save it to its own folder within my email account. This class inspired me to open a Gmail account which I have found, I am loving. I am thinking I will switch my entire Hotmail account over to Gmail for the use of Google Docs, calendars, and so forth. I love these features and wish that Hotmail would have offered this option so that I did not have to switch my account over. Since I am often working from home and work, I like being able to access my files from anywhere instead of having to email them to myself. I have also switched jobs a few times, and had to covert all my professionals documents over to a jump drive. What a mess!
Currently I have few files at home that I could NOT afford to lose. I will be uploading all my photos to a web-based site tonight though. Since I am not connected to the network at my work, I have not been saving files to any sort of hard drive at this time. I have saved a few things to my desktop, but this year alone I have been saving a copy in my Google Docs so that I don't lose it. I feel fairly secure that my most important documents are saved in the 'clouds' rather than my computer.

The Future of Computing

Where do I begin? I would never would have believed the future of now back when I was young. I grew up thinking computers where for games and word-processing. Don't get me wrong, I am one fast-typer and an expert game player. Looking at all a computer offers the user now, I can hardly image what will come in the near future. I will say, computers will be everywhere in the future. I tend bar on the side for extra cash, and I was discussing this with a common patron who feels computers are the root of all evil. I chuckled at his remarks that the 'government' is to blame for these so called 'monsters'. He is standing his ground against ever buying nor touching a computer. I applaud his stance, however I laugh. This may be possible now, but I don't see a future for the revolters. Whether we like it or not, computers are the way of the future. For this fact, I embrace it and want to learn more to better prepare my students.
I see my art classroom still having small built in screens where I can post a questions to my students, and they will touch the correct answer on the screen. I will instantly be able to see students answers. They would be able to take their own attendance through fingerprints on screen. I will still be teaching the value of hands-on paper and pencil drawing, but will incorporate technology where possible. I am already looking into programs like, TECC and International Youth Art Exchange to bridge my students with students of a different culture to find ways to use art as a solution to problems in the city. Or perhaps critique a student's art with various cultural influences to broaden my students ideas of issues and problems in other societies. To find common links and differences. Once a week we could connect with Chinese students to learn not only art styles of China, but great lasting global relations.
My goal is to instill the importance of self-learning. I want my students to take the responsiblity to gauge appropriate learning and to teach others their knowledge. I image my students running home and showing their parents or grandparents how to talk to their pen-pal online. Giving my students this knowledge, they will be better prepared for a life surrounded with technology. To encourage my students to be life-long learners will force them to adapt to the changes surrounding.
The affect technology is going to have on myself and my students is going to be great. The ease many tools will be able to offer us in daily tasks will be astonishing. My fear is that students will lose the social interaction of face to face conversations. Will our youth still be able to have those 'hard' confrontations needed at times? Will our youth hide behind the walls of technology with bitter/bold words that would necessarily be spoken if face to face? Currently we are already missing out on interactions with others due to self-checkout lines, automated check deposit, internet shopping, online dating, etc. These are all things we do daily which used to force us to meet new people.

Computer History of Hannah Smits

I have done more with computers in the past two weeks then I have done in my entire lifetime. Some would describe me as nearly illiterate with technology, until now. This is a huge reason as to why I enrolled in this Master's program, I want to learn more. I want to be that savvy computer "geek". As for my history, I remember back to computer class in grade school where we worked on typing skills and the simple math, reading, etc games by inserting the large floppy disks. We received points as we completed the various disks. The graphics at time were nothing to be desired, if there were any at all. This greatly improved my typing skills with a high words per minute average still to this day. We would look forward to Fridays, when two lucky students would get to go on the big Apple computer to play Oregon Trail.
As for a personal computer, there was no such thing. As the computers era was growing, many teachers were looking to have homework typed. This is when my parents splurged and bought a big, heavy word processor. Essentially it was a typewriter with a few extra "gadgets" including a computerized small screen. But it worked. It wasn't until later, my grandparents bought a new computer that my family was given the old one which admittedly was a large paperweight. It was constantly breaking down and "freezing" up, hence the reason I am afraid to experiment with a computer at all. The fear of breaking a computer is always lurking which prohibits the technological advancements of my skills.