Journey with Technology

Introduced to the world of audio-books and cassette tapes through mobile library in my rural district, Baillieston, Jamaica. I had previously received as a gift, an Aiwa Walkman cassette player. It even had an equalizer.

Schools in rural areas were not serviced by libraries, so the Jamaica Library Service has a books on wheels program that visited school and provided much reading material, fiction, non-fiction, as well as Science Books and magazines. Students could borrow books and the mobile service would exchange, lend and pick up on a weekly schedule.

An internet cafe was to be my first exposure to a computer. My friends and I would visit every weekend, where we would trade and play games on the computer. Back then games were stored on large floppy disks 5.25 and 3.5 in

Started going weekly beginning the summer of 1987 and continued to do this through high school.

First exposure to computer programming in High School. Learned COBOL. This was to be the first of three computer languages I would learn.

Bought my first PC. No longer shared or used computer cafe. It was an HP Pavilion. I couldn't wait to try every application I could download. I would pride myself on finding unique open source apps for school and everyday living.

After immigrating to the US, invested in a Bookman Dictionary and Thesaurus primarily for college use. While English was my primary language, there were subtle differences between British and American English. Still have my Bookman today. May I add that it has a removable cartridge, which makes its uses extensible. From science to history and civics.

The LG Chocolate was perhaps the first of many fun, vibrant color multipurpose phones I ever invested in. This was a slider phone, unlike flip phones or brick phone design, which made it compact, sliding the keyboard in and out. The phone was also an MP3 player, an address book featured with downloadable games, and expandable storage. It was capable of sending email and extremely basic browsing.

For many years, I resisted the luring temptation of smart phone. It was too pricey and I was just not sold on its uses. Frankly my LG chocolate was a hit with its removable storage and MP3 capabilities. However, the Moto Razr was well priced and Google was becoming quickly indispensable. I think the biggest selling point was the GPS and maps. In that very year, I started private tutoring and really needed better navigation.

Up until now, I never really felt the need for a touch screen device beyond the cellphone. The iPad changed that with its Apple Pencil. It brought a new level of convenience to writing and transcribing. Used this a lot and during this time discovered One Note and later Microsoft Whiteboard.

Having been introduced to One Note and the tablet PC, I quickly rushed to buying my first touch screen interactive tablet. This technology allowed me to teach in new found ways in the classroom, instead of relying on document cams, very boring PowerPoint and the "non student-facing" blackboard. Many tools for my Math classes suddenly came alive as I could write draw, measure, graph visually. Microsoft One Note and the Touch screen PC was the biggest professional contribution of any single technology to date.

Received the Google Home unit as a Christmas gift. Together with several smart home appliances I will be able to do much more. Currently I have configured The Nest Thermostat, The Nest XYale Lock and several standalone smart lights that currently are controlled through my phone and WiFi. Connecting these devices to my Google Home is my next project leading me into summer, voice automation.