Life Technology

Personal technology
As a teenager, Walkman was a hit technology. I always found it cool to be able to listen to my favorite music any time; I didn't have to be at home near the gigantic casette player. with earphones, I can just listen to what I like without having my parents yelling at me for that. I dreamed to have a walkman and kept asking my dad for one for months before he actually bought me one.
I felt I had a private life then just with earphones in my ears and my favorite Michael Jackson's songs streaming there. I also felt special and unique since walkman was not very cheap at that time in Egypt and not everybody could own one. I really enjoyed my walkman on trips when we were on the bus doing nothing; I could do something that I like and enjoyed it.

School technology
At school, my big technology experience came in first year at college when we had to take that conversation class and we went to the Language Lab to listen to native speakers saying conversations. Each one of us had a private station where we listened at our own pace and the instructor could actually access our stations and ask where we were on the tape. That was amazing at that time. I never saw something like that before, and bearing in mind I lived in a small town, I was impressed our small college was that advanced technology that we, English majors, were the only ones to play with.
I liked our sessions there a lot and enjoyed them so much. I tried to make the best of them by imitating how those people spoke on the tape. That was the first step to learn how to speak good, fluent English. I still appreciate our instructor, Mr. Peter, for what he taught us there.

Work technology
A few years ago, I was first introduced to Moodle at my workplace. We didn't have to use it, but I thought it would be nice to use it as it to give students access to my course materials like Power Point Presentations and extra readings and the alike stuff.
The university where I taught didn't offer any training on that, so I had to teach myself how to do it. I spent a couple of months exploring, playing around with things until I thought I mastered many things there. I started simple by uploading class materials on the class page there. But after a while I thought that it's a shame to have all those options without exploiting them in my classes. I started creating quizzes on Moodle and then quizzes and then mid-term exams and projects. It was a huge advance in teaching the courses I taught at that time at college.
My students were skeptical about it at first, but it became part of their academic life in my classes later that they asked other instructors if they can take quizzes and exams on Moodle. I was so proud of myself that I learnt it from ground up, utilizing all the possibilities embedded there in my class and for the comfort and learning of my students.

I think these three stories summarize my experience with teachnology. I'm still eager to learn more and experiment with more technology in my life and my career. Any challenges our there?