Module 8

I remember when I got my first email account, tannith@rocketmail.com (remember rocketmail!?).  I was twelve years old and we had recently moved to Utah from South Africa.  My dad was working in the IT department at BYU, and he set it up for me and I'm sure gave me a short tutorial on how to navigate through rocketmail, although I don't remember exactly if he did or not.  The best part about having an email account was that I could communicate now very easily with my ONE friend in South Africa who had email, Nicki Pillay.  Back then (we are talking twenty years ago people), the emails were very few and far between, with neither one of us being too enthralled with this new way of communicating.  In fact I am fairly positive that I still sent her snail mail communications too.  Although my very computer savvy father was responsible for my first exposure to computers, I fortunately had a computer course in my 7th grade year, at Dixon Middle School in Provo, and this was the beginning of my very limited education on computers.

I say limited because I have always felt that I was just ahead of the digital explosion.  For example: I know many people right around my age that are NOT that computer savvy (much like myself), but it is almost impossible to encounter someone just a few years younger who does not know at least all the basics.  I used to always be so impressed with my friends that were just three or four years younger than me when it came to their digital skills, and I would ask them how and when they learned such amazing proficiency!  The answer was always: I had a class in middle school and high school, didn't you?  No sir I did not!  I feel robbed because I certainly never had the privilege of learning all these necessary digital techniques in my younger years, when it was FREE!  Buuuuuuut let's focus on what I DID learn I suppose...back to my 7th grade computer class...

I should be grateful for that class, it's the only reason I can type the 40+ wpm that I am always fortunately able to putter across the finish line with, no matter how long I have been away from a keyboard.  The only thing I actually remember learning is typing, we had these hefty wooden boxes that slid over our keyboards to prevent cheating, and we were taught the basics of where to place our fingers as a home base, and the computer screen had an animation of our hands showing us which digit to use for the next entry by lighting it up. (Oh it's all coming back to me now, memories!)

After middle school I somehow made it all through high school without any computer classes, well...wait a minute.  I think I did have one, but high school is when I learned I could just take off in my car and play hooky instead of going to class, so that would explain why I don't remember any other digital courses. Oh how I regret so much of my academic youth!  So, fast forward a decade, almost two, and I have fortunately gleaned enough skill to get by in this digital age.  True it takes asking for help quite often, and that reminds me: I need to register for a computer class next semester!