Some reflections on technology…

Ahhh, things are a-changing at 5energies. As well as grappling with expanding premises, we have been on the search for updated technology to allow us to do what we want to do and enable greater productivity and communication.

I was just mulling that in my time as a teacher in school so many things have changed. My very first teaching position was at Umbakumba, a very remote settlement in the Gulf of Carpentaria. I hate to admit to living through the dinosaur days of technology, but this was prior to even Commodore computers moving into the school and home markets. This was even before the time of the Gestetner copying machine – my first stencils were made using what was called a ‘jelly pad’.

A jelly pad was made up of gelatine basically – a LOT of gelatine on a baking tray – and with texta pens (a new innovation at the time), one would write out some Maths (or whatever), place the texta pen written master stencil on the gelatine, face down, and after smoothing it firmly and lifting it off, place a blank sheet of paper on the gelatine to get an image on the paper. It would be good enough for six or seven images to be made before you had to write out your master stencil again.

Contrast that to the technology of today… No wonder schools have such a hard time keeping up though. Even the most innovative and financial schools of today are behind in their use of technology and sharing it with the bright minds of tomorrow. All I can say is thank goodness for the people who specialise in this field and have been kind enough to explain things in words I understand and in concepts I can come to grips with! So thank you to the experts in this field for understanding where we want 5energies to go – and for helping us to make this all a reality!