Individual Technology Assessment

As an educator, I possess one great strength regarding technology: I love learning. Therein lies my greatest weakness, as well: I have a lot to learn due to both the timing of my education and personal feelings regarding more recent forms of technological advancement. Having gone through college just before the internet revolutionized the ways people access information, I am still much more comfortable with books and teachers in the here and now. My husband and I dated in the days before e-mail and texting; we still have actual handwritten letters to prove it! Thus, I do understand my tendency to romanticize "the good old days" and lament, sometimes, what I see as the ephemeral, impersonal nature of communication in the 21st century.

Therefore, I confess to being a Luddite (and I'm quite happy to be one); though I am open to new learning and enthusiastically pursue it, I harbor a suspicion of the internet and various forms of electronic media. Part of this is a protective instinct for sheltering my family against often over-hyped risks detailed in the news. Another component deals with the resistance I occasionally feel against a somewhat ubiquitous force which, even with the best of intentions, can be intrusive. In addition, the access that commercial (and other) interests often gain from users' web-wanderings challenges privacy and raises questions about whether or not individuals retain control over information. How democratic is the internet if retailers or governmental interests have access to exactly what users are viewing without their knowledge?

Orwellian anxieties and Brave New World worries aside, I do see tremendous benefits in the use of the internet and other electronic media. I want to learn about these tools so that I may use them effectively and be an advocate for their ethical employment in a home and school library context. Currently, I have a surface understanding of the internet and its workings; I use it, e-mail, applications, etc. with little comprehension of their functional attributes. I wish to empower myself and others through education regarding these tools' capabilities and limitations. Like past technological developments, they have great potential for good or evil. Making good choices with the tools we have, while knowing the uselessness of willing away the troubles from Pandora's fabled box, is the best remedy for the reality in which we find ourselves.