"Steve Jobs made the ugly world of technology beautiful"; this morning on the national news I heard an anchor on NBC quoting this Tweet he had read last night after the
announcement by Apple of the passing of their C0-Founder and leader, Steve Jobs. This tweet really grabbed my attention because I think it elegantly sums up why Steve Jobs impacted our lives so powerfully. Not only did he make computers and technology better looking, but he also made them cool and easy to use. No longer were computers and programs reserved for computer "geeks" and technologically
savvy programmers and the like. Mom, Dad, son, daughter and grandma and grandpa could now access the benefits in life by being able, or at least comfortable to try, to use computers and the programs that run them.
Since this death is being called the "End of an era" I thought it was important as a computer teacher to have my students read, discuss, and reflect and blog about this amazing innovator and person and how his visions and work changed their lives. I had them start by reading the following article and highly recommend it.
'End of an era': Apple co-founder Steve Jobs remembered
The students really seemed to understand the significance of the passing of Steve Jobs because of the impact his technology innovations had on their own lives. When I did a quick survey of the class and asked them how many of them had an Apple product, every student raised their hand. The products he helped create at Apple had reached every single student in my class, including myself. Many of them had
iPhones but almost every one of them had an
iPod or
iTouch. Obviously, his
business savvy and vision for technology has been extremely effective and by just surveying my one class here in Truckee, CA provides that proof.
For me personally, my first computer (see pictures) was a Macintosh SE
SuperDrive which had a 30
mb hard-drive. One of my students commented; "sick, you could almost store 5 songs on that bad boy". Crazy, I know, but I paid about $2,000 for my Mac and wrote every college paper in my four years as a student at
Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA from 1990 to 1994 on that "bad boy". My students were even more shocked when I let them know that not only did I not have the Internet on my Mac but that I did not even see my first web site until 1995 when a good friend showed us AOL on her laptop after dialing in on her phone and attaching it to the computer. I also learned in the article about how Steve Jobs landed an internship with HP before graduating from college. This was powerful because I'm constantly teaching my students about the benefits of networking and finding internships. I also learned that he worked for Atari, the first gaming system I got my hands on as a kid growing up in
Urbandale, IA. as I mastered the skills with my favorite games Asteroids,
PacMan, and
DonkeyKong. I was also amazed to learn that Steve was put up for adoption by his biological parents and adopted by a middle class working couple in Los Altos, CA.
In conclusion, my students recognized the impact and success one person can have by thinking out of the box, being passionate, working hard, and following your dreams like Steve Jobs did. They also understood and commented that they know the future holds many more innovations and changes ahead in regards to how we as humans live our daily lives and use technology to assist us with routine functions as well as creating new opportunities for living and communicating. I hope they translate this into a passion to become life-long learners and to have dreams and goals to be part of the future and where we go.
Rest in Peace Steve, you will be missed but not forgotten!
