In the beginning there were shapes and colorful blocks, A B C’s, One Twos and Threes. A’s were red for apples, and B’s were blue for Blue Berries. Letter “N” which stood for nap-time, was avoided at all costs, because at the age of one apple, two apple, three, four, 5 apples, you had more energy then Ms. Nancy could handle. I remember the colors, and I remember the shapes but one thing I remember the most was the big grey block that was not used for building forts or Cinderella castles. No this block was special. It was mostly grey with a shiny black side that looked very similar to the TV in my living room. Across this “screen” a bright green block would blink leaving behind a trail of A B and C’s, one’s two’s and three’s. I soon learned it was called a computer, and that despite its dull color it had many more uses then any colored block in the classroom. It was full of fun, games I had never played before and came with a button pad that if touched, would cause the screen of the computer to react in many different ways. Every day each student had an allotted amount of time that we were allowed to spend on the computer. In the beginning, we were given lessons on how to use it but as we all became more comfortable, we spent that time playing various games and practicing typing.
My first exposure to digital technology remains as this brief memory but as I got older the technological world continued to grow with me and I was constantly exposed to new programs, games, and hardware. My next memory resides within a tiny rainbow striped apple, a couple apples older then the first computer I had ever met. This one lived in the basement of my parents’ house and unlike the last computer its screen was of color. It was on this computer that I spent hours upon hours practicing my newly acquired digital drawing skills with a program formally known as Kid Pix. Kid Pix was, as one might assume from it’s name, a digital drawing program for kids that included all the tools for drawing, painting, coloring and creating that any child could need into one neat package. I liked it because I could draw and paint at ease and my mom liked it because she didn’t have to spend laborious hours trying to get stains out of my clothing after craft time. Other games I became familiar with include the Oregon Trail, which I watched from behind the shoulders of my brother and sister as I waited for my turn on the computer, which would be spent drawing pictures on Kid Pix. I spent a fair amount of time on the computer but never became completely absorbed except for that one program. Perhaps it was the way my parents raised me to love the outdoors but I still thoroughly enjoyed the tactile world of charcoal smeared drawings and grass stained jeans much to my mother’s dismay.
Weather I was interested or not the digital world continued to grow and before long the whole family enjoyed bonding over a game of Super Nintendo Mario Cart and road trips passed by more quickly with the help of an old whopping game boy. Before long the digital world had programmed more games then I could have ever cared for. Super Nintendo became Nintendo 64 and many kids enjoyed playing Sonic the hedgehog on Sega. The list goes on and today technology has reached nearly every corner of the world creating the fast paced society we know today. Its gone from being two dimensional, three dimensional to four dimensional and it all started with one apple, two apples, three apples four.
ared light that we needed, Elisha came to the media center with several samples of reflective Lycra. Once again, with lights off and camera on we tested the light with our first sample. Looking through the eyes of the camera slits of infrared light flickered onto the screen. The whole sheet of the fabric was hardly visible accept for moments when the fabric caught glimpses of the light as we stretched and moved it. We found that the closer the fabric was to the infrared, the more visible it became, but for the most illumination it had to be held about 5-6 feet away from both the infrared and the camera. This would be too close for dancing. Every fabric seemed to act about the same except for one that was noticeably more effective, yet still not effective enough. We decided to wait until the next week to try spraying some reflective paint, the kind they spray on stop signs, onto fabric.
