When I was studying in the USA back in 1989, there was only intranet on campus computer system. Only user ID was used to communicate within the system - from one PC to another PC which are connected to the intranet. I had to know my friend's intranet ID number to be able to communicate to her.
When I started teaching in 1990, having to use a PC in school for teaching and learning was never heard of. PC was only meant for admin work such as key in students names, keeping records, etc.
Most of the times, I used typewriters to set test papers as well as examination papers. I used special paper which was called stencil to type on. If the questions involved diagrams, bars or graphs, I had to draw them using stencil pen. After that, the stencil paper will be sent to the office to let the office boy cyclostyle them to produce enough copies for the students.
I started using internet in the year 2000 (the year I had my own email address using hotmail). I was forced to create my own email address that year because it was needed for me to fill in a form to enable me to go for a work trip to Japan. Later, schools started to have their own computer labs for teaching and learning. I made full use of the facility provided to enhance my teaching and to maximise students' learning. Although internet was very slow at that time, I managed to integrate technology using off line features in the PC like Microsoft publisher.
My passion to use technology grew when I continued my study in Instructional technology in 2008 at University Malaya. I started to use LMS and had my own portal using Moodle. At that time it was Web 2.0. As years went by Web 3.0 was introduced. Then IR 4.0.
Now in 2023 we are moving fast to AI era. ChatGPT, Copy.ai, writesonic, quillbot, jasper.ai and many more are the current applications people used for writing assistance.
Educators must keep up with the technology introduced and use them to maximise teaching and learning.
