Hi, I’m Julie Schappe. Some university documentation lists my full name as Julie Frear Schappe to accommodate shifting names on transcripts. Names are odd things – each of the components to my name have a fleeting quality, all having been changed in spelling form by one generation or another. Although I’ve lived in Pennsylvania for the past twenty years (and Ohio and New York before that), I consider myself a Michigan native. The best thing about moving to PA is the trees. I’m a nature lover and seeing treed areas rather than canvases of flat farmland (Ohio) or concrete walls (NYC) brought a sense of peace to my life and a daily reminder of the trees from my childhood in Michigan. However, I must admit that being in nature means that we are periodically complicitous in the cycle of life – our bird feeder acts as a regular feeding station for a pair of red tailed hawks that live in the woods behind the house.
My professional interests center on notions of meaning making entangled with ways we understand literacy, embodiment, places and social practices and cultural beliefs. I began my professional life in the business world; however, one too many flights and our move to PA prompted me to put my English literature and language degree to work. Fifteen years ago I transitioned to education and haven’t looked back. I’ve been lucky to work with students and teachers in a range of K-12 and university settings. My studies have evolved from a M.Ed. in Curriculum and a fellowship with the National Writing Project to my current Ph.D. studies in Language, Culture & Society within Curriculum & Instruction here in State College. Although I’m a full time student, I live in Harrisburg and commute to State College for classes and meetings. My husband, Steve, and I have three sons. With one still at home, commuting is the best avenue for our family.
Anything interesting about me? Well, I’m used to chaos and have been trained organically as an observer given my status as the youngest of six kids (including four brothers). I have a fair amount of emergency room experience – as a healthy companion – and tend not to be shy about risk taking. My dislike of roller coasters is not consistent with this image, but life is loaded with inconsistencies.
Technology is fascinating to me, but I am a pragmatic user. I embrace the technology that facilitates the way I wish to live. As such, I freely admit that I have chosen not to set up my voicemail on my iPhone. People who know me know that texting is my friend and voicemail has become a time sucker for me. In June, I happily became an iPad user and entered a new phase of productivity and play that pleases me in an aesthetic manner that I had not imagined. The touch technology, portability and access to readings, news, information, and Netflix does it all for me at the moment. My union with Apple was completed over the semester break with the conversion from PC to iMac. Play with devices attracts me, social networking platforms have not. Although I have a Facebook, I rarely check it. I use my Twitter as a news feed. I have not discovered how those particular networks will add to my life but am open to learning more.
Technology interests me not as an end in itself but in how it facilitates living, learning, and play. Thinking about contexts entangling teaching, learning, and technology raises the glimmering potential for purposeful play but also the specter of imposed tasks glorifying a facet of technology for its own sake losing the learner, the person, in the process. My interest is in exploring how technology may be used to bring the learner and her/his experiences to the forefront. Making connections is central to my interest in technology to disrupt the routine of learning that actually distances the learner from their needs and goals.
SCOTT P MCDONALD says
I think there are a lot of people that take a pragmatic view of technology, as you have expressed, at least about your personal use. For me, the interesting thing is how and why people adopt certain technologies into their workflows. Some seem to be based on a generational thing (Facebook is a primary mode of communication, not just social networking for many of the current generation), some has to do with your community, and then some is purely self interested problem solving (my wife and I use a shared grocery list on our iPhones so we don’t have to keep running out to the store). Should be interesting to see how your technology use changes as you enter a new community of users this semester.