My tech use as a student

Oregon Trail

1991

In kindergarten, my teacher would take our class to the computer lab to play The Oregon Trail. Many of us died of dysentery.

Microsoft Paint

1995

In 4th grade GATE, I learned how to use Paint. I remember drawing with the marker, spray can, and eraser. I also opened, resized, and rotated stock photos.

Wikipedia

2001

In high school, I started using the internet to do research. My teachers told my classmates and me not to use Wikipedia.

SparkNotes

2002

I've always struggled with reading long texts. When assigned book reports, I'd use SparkNotes to read summaries instead of reading the actual books.

Graphing Calculator

2003

The popular graphing calculator in the early 2000s was the TI-84+. I used a hand-me-down Sharp that was missing a column of pixels. My Pre-Calculus teacher stressed the importance of knowing what our calculators could and could not do. For example, I learned that my calculator would not show me where asymptotes and holes in graphs are, which made me value the algebra more.