My Computer History

     Let me think..... it seems like 1,000s of years have passed since I first touched a computer.  My school had Apple IIe computers with the really cool amber screens.  I even convinced my parents to get on for home, with a green screen, that we used mostly for games.  I never really got into the programing aspect.
     In college, I used computers for email and accessing the ISCA BBS.  If you don't know what a BBS is, think of an all text-based FaceBook with forums and instant messaging.   Ah.... those were the days. Oh...and I also used them for typing up papers for class. For me, word processing made my life a lot easier since I had bad handwriting and didn't like to write things by hand.
     When I moved to Japan, I used my computer to keep in touch with friends and create activities for my students.  It was during this time that I started dabbling with making webpages.  A friend of mine showed me some basic HTML and I started coding my own pages by hand and had a website.
     After moving back from Japan to start graduate school,  I continued to use my computer for word processing and the internet.  I also started a small internet store.  When I first started my store, I was still writing code until I discovered un time I was still hand coding until I discovered DreamWeaver.  Wow... that was an awesome discovery!  It made my life sooooo much easier.
     During graduate school, my whole Japanese department used Macs, so I ended up getting one as well out of necessity.  At this time I wasn't the rabid Mac fan that I am now.  
     After moving to Wisconsin to start my teaching of Japanese, I continued to use my PC to create learning activities for my students and do various things on the Internet.  Then, about 4 years ago, I attended the WAFLT conference where I saw a great presentation on various things that the newer Macs can do.  It blew me away, but I was still skeptical.  So I borrowed a coworkers Mac laptop for a couple of days to play with it.    Been a convert ever since.  I got my own Mac the following fall.

Since then,  I've used my Mac(s) everyday to create new things and have found some really cool programs to run on it.  I use it to make crosswords (using Crossword Forge), flashcards (iFlash), podcasts/listening activities (Garage Band) and "comics" using Comic LIfe.

I dabble with WordPress and ZenCart as well.  I don't know what I would do without my technology.  I incorporate it into my work, hobbies and free time.