DWEDOR: I want to talk about my experience with technology, my experience with
using computers. So this was like in the early 1980s, my husband had decided
that he was going back to school after getting a biology degree, a masters in
biology and a bachelors in biology, but you know, though, that discipline wasn't
really working for him. So he decided he was going to go back to school--maybe
not really decided--I think he was offered to go and get a computer science
degree. So he took the university up on their offer, he went back to school and
started from the undergraduate level. He got a  bachelors in computer science.

Meanwhile, I remember that in early 1980s, that's when you really have this
whole, you know, the development of a degree in computer science, and I remember
he used to be in this lab where you had these huge clunky machines even and
every time you looked in his car, there were these punchcards, and I always
wondered what that was. But, you know, he never explained that to us, to me and
the kids--we were having some kids at the time, and my husband was like always
gone, and so any time the kids and I wanted to see him we had to go look for him
in the lab. And so we'll go to lab, and he'll be so busy writing programs and
all that.

But I got into the technology when he had an opportunity to bring home
computers. And I remember experimenting on the computers. I remember when the
computer had the--I don't know--the system that had like GOPHER, and you'd click
a button, and this little man would run across the screen and go and get
whatever it is you wanted. And I thought it was fascinating. And that time, the
screen was like green and black.

But I remember him--I remember asking him,  could he please word process my
papers for my composition courses because, of course, the typewriter was slowly
on its way out. And he had shown me how easy it was to word process a paper with
a computer. But he was busy getting his degree and all that, and he'll say,
"I'll do it," but then I had to sit there, maybe use the typewriter and maybe
make a lot of mistakes. So I watched him working on the computer, and after
several days or weeks of showing me what to do, or just standing by his
shoulders, I learned how to do it myself. So this is working through 1982, 83,
84, I'm really getting interested in this technology, and as the technology
improves, the more I had--the better access I had, because being a computer
computer science student, he had an opportunity to bring the machine home. And
so I will work on it day and night, I will stay up late and work on it. So I
think I'm one of those early adopters of the technology.

And then I begin to integrate technology into my composition class slowly,
beginning with email and beginning with having them making sure that students
turn in their word processing. And at that time we didn't have the liberation of
the [?] on computers than we have today, so I I was one of those early adopters.
I wanted to make sure that my students were introduced to that technology. And
that, in a way, made life easier for me, because I remember when students would
write their papers--depending on, you know, what their handwriting looked like,
you're not only grading for what content and everything else, you're looking at
the handwriting and you try to decipher where they're saying. And you're
teaching four writing classes, and you're like, "I'm gonna spend twenty- thirty
minutes on this one paper just because I can't read it, it's so unclear." So the
technology really helps me to speed up my grading process. Having, like I said,
four writing courses with about 30 students in each section, that was a lot. So
technology really helped me through that.

And so I've grown with technology. My dissertation, my PhD dissertation has to
do with integrating technology into the writing classroom, where I looked at
composition teachers, how they were doing integration. And I also look at how
writing program administrators were encouraging composition teachers to use the
technology. And I did this research in--what?--2003 when I graduated with my
PhD, and I thought that was.. I found--and you know, it was 10 years ago, about
10 years ago? Yeah, almost 11 years now? Yeah, roughly. That at that time, even
though we're talking about 2003, of course my research was based five years,
five years earlier, I found that a lot of composition teachers at that time was
similarly integrating technology into the classroom and the way I was, so I feel
like I was ahead of the game. And I have continued to use technology forever.
And I am always looking for--trying to learn a new tool--whatever it is out
there, I experiment with it.

And so going back to my husband a little bit, he finally got a masters in
computer science,  then he got a PhD in computer science. So the technology has
been the way for us to sort of have something to talk about I mean, you know,
I'm being in English and he's being, you know, in computer science, it seemed
like there was not a link, that there was not this conversation even though both
of us are in the academic field, but when I'm linking on to the technology, we
could share and talk about what was going on in the field.  So that's my story.