This is me, I work on the web.
As a kid, I loved playing games on the Commodore 64, but I was skeptical of the computer as a tool. My family got dial up and a "real" computer my first year of high school. The computer came with Encarta. My dad tried to sell me on this strange, disc-like encyclopedia, but I scoffed. How much information could really be on that thing? How could it possibly beat our late 1970s encyclopedia set? So, for the time being, I continued playing games on the computer, began communicating with email and ICQ, and resisted the computer for anything "useful."
In college my friends kept in touch with AIM. There were a lot more websites. I had a few professors that required we use electronic journals instead of print "because they are the future." After a few semesters of this I got used to using the web for finding information and I began wondering how I ever did anything without my computer.
I started blogging (not knowing it was called that) with html in 2000, learning about the social web as I played. In 2003 I got my first "real" job. It was in a library. Soon I was playing with wikis as a supervision aid for my student workers. I also began looking at ways to use online videos and photos to help teach them to do their jobs.
Four fast years later, and I do everything on the internet. I write, tag, share photos, chat, make phone calls, and send text messages with the internet. I can’t imagine how I could maintain so many relationships or keep so current in my profession without spending time playing in these online environments.
Now, at work, I use technology to communicate with our community, to provide reference services, and to teach information literacy concepts. I regularly make media including blogs, screencasts, and videos. I use sites like Twitter to show people how interesting the library can be.
Recently I’ve started volunteering my web skills. I maintain a site for a local book festival and I am teaching computer basics classes. I have never taught anything so rewarding in my life. You can see that the web will change the student’s lives, and they are excited to finally get online. And I know it will change their lives because it completely changed mine.
My online home is www.laurenpressley.com.
I work on the web. But I socialize and play there, too.
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