My early experience with technology goes back to an early age while learning how to ride a bicycle, which I still lose balance and I need supporting wheels.  I still remember that the boys in my neighborhood were teasing me about being unable to ride a bicycle. They challenged me to ride one and the nasty boys gave me a really huge bike that was meant for grown ups. I managed to climb it while they were holding it before releasing it.  In fact, I mangaed to ride it for a short distance before falling down and cutting my knee. This experience always put me in a challenge with any type of invention as I was growing up. I become good in using the sewing machine, fixing cables, and many other things. TV and toys with screens attracted my attention all the time. Looking at this box with a screen, where life seemed  to be real, made me love it.  We used to have a black and white TV screen around which all siblings, cousins, and sometimes neighbors sitting silently watching cartoons with tears in their eyes when there is emotional moments. I also remember that as kids we used to cover the screen with a colored pieces of cloth to change the color. So, sometimes we had red screen and other times it turned to blue when my mother didn't caught us using her head scarf. As kids, we also used to invent our own TV which was made out of blocks and someone would pretend to be news broadcaster. Radios were another story.  

As I grow up, I became more passionate about other types of technology that suited my purposes and interests. But, I always loved playing with buttons and loved having toys that had buttons to press. I always wanted to click buttons for some reason. My journey with buttons and technology started earlier when I wanted to learn how to play the piano. But since I didn’t learn the piano, I turned to an alternative tool; computer.

 I am totally dependent on computers for all my daily life. Reflecting about technology and literacy,  my first experience with computers was when I had to type my assignment papers . But at that time, I had not gotten any computer or in any place nearby. Still, I always wanted to use computers and type. This chance came to me during my  first years of teaching when I started preparing exams for my students. It happened that at the staff room there was only one computer that nearly no one was using becuase  many teachers were not enthusiastic about using it. Well, who cares? I liked it and I used to clean it from the dust it had. Of course, you know why. But, it seemed  that the initial sparks started from there, not from cleaning the dusty computer, but with having a screen and buttons, who would stop me? Recognizing the importance of technology for ESL/EFL classroom encourages me to use it in my teaching. At the beginning of my career, I used to have a hand written exams that I had to make several drafts whenever I changed my mind about a certain question. When I started using computers, I spent less time writing and editing exams as well as making my exams neat and well organized. My students, in turn, found it easy to deal with exams when they were typed and I faced no problems of explaining or complaining because the written exams was not clear. 

 My passionate about computers continued to grow up especially while studying for my master degree where I had to use computers all the time for searching, writing, and of course for chatting. Chatting was the first that taught me how to type fastly. Using technology also connected me to the world where I met many people from several countires that had and still have no peace agreement with Israel. From that time, I educated myself to do everything by depending on technology for my daily life. I become very expert in many issues concerning the machine and everyone else was amazed from how much I knew about computers and internet thinking that I had a degree in computer science or was in some kind of enrichment courses. Which neither is true!