Job Discussion Forums

btsmrtfan · Joined: 01 Jul 2010 Posts: 193 Location: GPS Not Working

For those of us old enough to remember, what did we do before there was the WWW?

What kept us occupied? How did we spend our free time?

Was that time spent absent the availability of the WWW a plus, minus or of no consequence in making you a better or worse teacher?

For my part, I read, read and really never stopped reading except for when I was playing sports. I believe the reading I did then (and still do) before the WWW significantly impacted me in positive ways regarding my performance as a teacher today.

Looking back on that time, I am very happy for the time I had to do the reading I did without the interruption of the WWW.

What about you?

johntpartee · Joined: 02 Mar 2010 Posts: 3258

Same here, btsmrtfan, lots more reading. Also spent a lot of time at libraries doing research, that's probably the biggest change.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Read antiques such as real paper books, magazines, and newspapers.
Went outdoors to see something called sunshine and nature.
Spoke live, face to face with entities called friends.
Used a device called the land line telephone to call same entities.
Played ancient activities called board games or card games with those entities, in person.
Bought goods at facilities called stores or shopping centers.
Used paper and pen/pencil to write postcards and paper letters.
Stored photographs as hand-held printed objects in things called albums.
Listened to music on a stereo.
Watched TV programs and movies on TV or in theaters.
Attended music concerts with real live singers.
Typed reports and theses on paper with a typewriter and stored them in a filing cabinet for privacy and security.
Paid for goods with a checkbook or by hand-signing for a credit card after showing my driver's license for confirmation of identity.

And, finally...
Used a password only between close friends, fellow spies, or brother Masons.

voltaire · Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 6:26 am Post subject:

Just yesterday the net was down at my office, and all the teachers went out and did things rather than sit mouths agape at facebook and youtube. It was like 1991 again!

I deplore to see relatives visiting one another on holidays, and every one sits around the banquet table texting people who are not there, and ignoring those who are.

It's a whole new world we live in, and it looks pretty bleak at times, but I love that I can now get online in the classroom, use dictionary.com, show images of unfamiliar things, and maps and play songs to relieve the tedium.

I love having public domain books available for my personal reading since I tend to read old stuff anyway. Saves me a number of bus trips and hunting through bookstores.

And then there's the porn!

So what did I do before the net? Slogged off to libraries, and drew animals and fruit and crudely ridiculous maps of where I am from on the whiteboard for my students. I spent a good deal of time photocopying stuff, and watching (*gag*) television!

The net (and the PC) are to the information revolution what the steam engine was to the industrial revolution, and the ox and plow were to the agricultural one.

I agree that human relationships are a rapidly and alarmingly vanishing phenomena, but well, oobla di, oobla da, life goes on...

Bye, now that I've shared my views with people I will never meet as I ignored my colleagues in the room, I have to tend to my Travian villages.

Teacher in Rome · Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Posts: 1286

Looked forward every month to when the EL Gazette would arrive in school. Then all of us teachers would race to get to the jobs page first. Ditto with the Guardian on Tuesday for the Teaching supplement.

Went to the pub a lot more; spent a lot more time finding material for students from newspapers, then adapting it through cut and paste or re-typing.

jonniboy · Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 7:45 pm Post subject:

I read about the same amount then as now, the reading is often more fragmented now though, like I'll only read the sections of an online newspaper or mag that interest me now instead of going through most of the thing.

I often travelled 2 or 3 hours to a far off library to get political documents which interested me or which I needed for my studies. I still played video games but they were in more primitive formats and didn't require a day spent pre-reading a manual before playing. I spent a fortune on CDs, VHS tapes, travel agents commissions and national or international phone calls. Finding out anything, train times, bus times etc meant either trotting to the place in question or a phone call at peak time rates.

The internet era though has had many stages, 1991-1997/1998 when there wasn't much online and pcs, laptops and net connections were a lot more pricey. 1998-Facebook when people actually communicated using ancient forms like e-mail instead of saying "Oh I thought you'd heard about X joining the Somalian ecological fascist party, he posted it on facebook."

Zimmer · Joined: 26 Oct 2011 Posts: 229

Bought cassette tapes, and, later C.Ds and listened to them on huge primitive machines.

Now I download all of my music and play it through my computer or MP3 player.

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Did anyone else here ever own an eight-track music tape? Embarassed

Sashadroogie · Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2012 4:13 am Post subject:

Never got into the eight-tracks. But I did have a 78 rpm gramophone, for playing my shellac platters. Ah, those were the days! Die Walk�re, Prince Igor, Boris Godunov, Fidelio. Yes, of course these days they can all be listened to in one long sitting on a single mp3 file downloaded from the 'net. But there was something charming about having to change the platter every 6 minutes or so, to whir the winding handle, and especially, having sit down and listen to the music. Ah, the crackly hiss, the faded libretto booklets smelling of bygone ages - all this has been lost for the ease and convenience of modern formats and internet-based sources. But at what cost to our souls?

Ach! Where is my sword? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfNm_KPs5Ak

artemisia · Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 875 Location: the world

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Ah, those clunky old bricks of mobile phones that NO WAY fit in any pocket!!
Unlike Sasha's platters, nothing to miss about the old mobiles.

artemisia · Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 875 Location: the world

But I do miss it! I hung onto it for years until it died a sad and premature death. I used to enjoy watching various people producing and fiddling with their up to date beauteous gadgets. After a while I'd plonk mine down on the table next to theirs, where it would immediately draw every amazed eye.

If I still had it these days, it would probably work well as aversion therapy for all those students with palm-welded mobiles.

tttompatz · Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2012 5:46 am Post subject:

jonniboy · Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2012 7:42 am Post subject:

Shroob · Joined: 02 Aug 2010 Posts: 1339

I'm probably not as old as most of you here, but growing up my family didn't have a computer until I was 15. We did have a SNES though - Duck Hunt's an amazing game.

My brother and I used to spend quite a bit of time outside, just playing, sometimes fishing or cycling. When we got a PC that changed I'm sorry to say. Played a lot of online games and rarely went outside. Parents considered getting rid of the computer but it was good for my education. As a side note I always say one of the best things my parents did for me was to make me have typing lessons. I hated it at the time but it's a very useful skill in this day and age.