Liz Deichler Parker EDCT 552 24 September 2012 iDeichler: How Technology Shaped My Relationships My technology timeline is littered

with both good and bad experiences, but I have chosen to focus on the positive and relay how technology has improved and fostered new relationships with family and friends. The first moment on my technology timeline that I want to discuss is my positive entry about watching the TV show X-Files with my family on Sunday evenings. The television, in general, was always a big draw in my house. The dining table was positioned where my father, at the head of the table, was able to view the television while eating and the children could not. It was a privilege to watch television and something you earned by doing your homework, your chores, or finishing your meal. Yet when it came to TV time on Sundays, it didnt matter if you hadnt finished a math assignment, or if youd broken something in the house and were confined to your room for the day, everyone came out to watch the science fiction/horror television show. I still find it hilarious that somehow my family bonded over a show that involved such frightening premises as a man that was able to transport medical instruments into another human, thus killing them, or an ongoing fear of black oil that was some sort of alien that crept under your skin and controlled your very being. Most families I know watched Jeopardy or Family Feud. My family was always a little different. What is most important about this moment is it was a time for my family to connect with technology, and through commercials, to take a moment of pause and connect with each other.

This was one of those fandoms that you could geek out over, as Parker would say in Teaching Tech-Savvy Kids, and while my family could connect on personal, daily issues, we were also able to view the technology and critically analyze the story line between breaks in the show. My parents, unknowingly, were teaching me how to analyze story-telling and what did and did not connect with an audience. I started to understand the specifics of the genre of Science Fiction and thus prepare myself better when encountering it in a school setting. My parents would be astonished to discover that a seemingly trivial show turned out to be an education and communicative experience. The second experience from my timeline that I thought was a valuable communication experience was my involvement in written Role-Play-Game (RPG) online communities. These RPG communities are typically based around a popular book series, musical group, or other fandom that is pervading modern culture. You take this fandom and create a new story revolving around some base facts that you take from the canon (The true facts that you can find in the real world, dictated by experts, the author, etc.) or that you create yourself. Together, through a blog, an online journal, or a discussion forum, a story is created that can be dictated by the Game Master (GM) or can be a collaborative free-for-all authored by everyone participating. My first exposure to RPGs was through yahoo groups involving the band NSYNC. I was a typical teenage girl in love with boy bands, and I discovered through the web that not only were there fan groups for this band, but there were people creating stories involving the band members and characters they created. I jumped in with all the writing prowess a 12 year-old can muster, and started to enjoy the outlet for creativity. In fact, I got one of my Real Life (RL) friends involved and we would write these stories, back and forth, in a notebook on the school bus. I met new people through this media and actually talked on the phone to one of the girls my

age, as well as sent letters, and even attempted to start a website dedicated to our own fan fiction (Another term for RPGs, typically if they are fully written stories by one author). After this first RPG experience faded, I started to look into other avenues. There was everything from Lord of the Rings based RPGs to ones in fantasy high schools where someone had created his or her own canon. What really stuck with me was Harry Potter. I started to delve into this new genre of RPG, where I stuck for a good long while. I started to realize that the solid writers usually found one another and tended to hop from game to game (once a story line was done, the RPG tended to fade out). I even made an amazing friendship with two other RPGers and manned the helm of a couple of RPGs myself, creating full plots with my friends and navigating others into the intricacies of the story. Eventually I ended up meeting a large group of these friends in Michigan, another experience on my timeline that I wont expound upon, but one that was in direct correlation to my being so heavily involved in this community. This entire experience, a full 10-12 years of my life, drives home the importance that Burbles and Callister place on the Relational Perspective and how technology is linked to community and social life. I found a community I never would have in a school setting, and within it I honed my writing skills that I was able to transfer into my educational practices. This community not only helped me find encouragement and support and made me feel that my contribution will be valued, as Parker expresses about social communities in Teaching TechSavvy Kids, but it helped me become a better student. I believe that students should find communities like this. Perhaps not heavily based on creative writing, but some sort of niche where they feel they belong and can connect with new and interesting individuals that could very well change their life.

Both of these events have largely shaped me into the critical consumer of technology that I am today. Through television and RPG communities, I learned that I could analyze story structure outside of school, and have an enjoyable time doing it. I also learned that relationships can blossom with technology, as long as you recognize it as a tool by which to do so. These lessons are important to bring into my future as an educator, because my students will be these continually connected kids. My experience with technology has prepared me to look at technology as an Extension, as Marshall McLuhan is quoted by Beatham in Tools of Inquiry: Separating the Tool and Task to Promote True Learning, that affects the whole psychic and social complex. My relationships arent with the technology, the technology has simply fostered a way to communicate and opened new avenues under which to enhance my connection to those I care for.