Technology in Ecuador

I'm so excited to be back online. I had forgotten my log-in information and even though I had a couple opportunities to get on the internet throughout Ecuador, I wasn't able to blog. Judy was kind enough to to e-mail me the directions for how to get my log-in information, but the instructions came back in Spanish. My Spanish isn't too bad, but not good enough to understand the instructions. That was combined with the fact that I'm in an internet cafe, people talking all around me, it is hot, etc., etc and I didn't have the patience to work on it. I also realized that even if I got in, I wasn't going to be able to concentrate and write a coherent post.

Now I'm in Quito in my Goddaughter, Caitlin's apartment. I was able to get into my blog, and I can concentrate, at least to some degree. I'm fighting a cold and a pretty good case of "turistas" so I'm not in the best of shape. But, I'm going to give it a go! (no pun intended)

Being in Ecuador and having part of my mind on technology because of this class has been interesting. I've been paying attention to technology in the places we've been. We went all over Ecuador, from Quito to the Amazon Basin jungle, to the coast, then to the Galapagos Islands. Here are some of my observations:


Cell phone technology is different here--many people have cell phones, but they are pay as you go. There is a "Porta" store on every corner selling recharge cards. Cell phone coverage has been good. Even in the Galapagos, we had bars. There are also "Cabinas" on every corner where one can go to make phone calls. Those are for the people without cell phones, I guess. By the number of cabinas, it would appear that many families don't have phones or they use the cabinas to make international calls which perhaps can't be made on home phones.

Internet cafes are popular. I doubt that many people have personal computers so they use cyber cafes instead. They are used by children to play games on line as well as by tourists to stay connect to the news back home. The night I was logged on to our class moo, on one side of me I had two girls playing games and giggling, and on the other side there was an American young man reading the headlines out loud to his companions. The connections are slow and not very reliable. They use a Spanish keyboard and that took some getting used to. I had to have help finding out how to find the @ sign. In most parts of the country, the cost was 50 cents/hour. However, when I logged into class, at break time I asked how much it was and was told $2.00 per hour. I had not brought that much cash with me so I had to log out. I was able to catch up on what I missed here tonight by reading the recorded log.

We were in two hospitals. We went to one to get a "cleansing" by a woman who practiced "alternative" medicine. At that hospital, there were computers, but they didn't appear to be networked. We gave our information to one woman who put it in the computer. She then printed it out and we carried the printed form to the next place. I had to take Caitlin to the hospital in the Galapagos. There I was able to see what little technology they had in their emergency room. They merely wrote down her information on a sheet of paper. They then wrote down the list of medicines for her to take to the pharmacy. They wanted her to have a rehydration solution so I had to run to the store and buy some water and bring it back. It was so very different from an emergency room here in the States. But on the other hand, they didn't charge her anything for the visit.

Karaoke is popular. We were going to go into a karaoke bar to see what it's like, but never were able. That's a little different kind of technology.

Some of my experiences with technology

OK, I'll try this again. My short post last night appears to have worked.

As I said last night, I'm getting ready for a trip to Ecuador. I've been planning it for four months. I wasn't expecting to take a class this semester so there wasn't going to be a problem with missing school. But then my advisor suggested this class. After talking to Judy about the fact that we could log in from anywhere, it seemed do-able.

However, last week, my Goddaughter/traveling companion sent me our itinerary and I realize that I may not have access to technology for the first two weeks of the trip. Isn't that ironic--for the first two weeks of a class in technology, I might have to limit my learning to old fashioned print materials.

I'm very excited about this class. I have a lot to learn. I'm older than the average college student (to say the least) so I haven't had the same kind of technology exposure that many of you have had. On the other hand, I do own a PDA, a cell phone, a laptop, a digital camera, and a HD TV. I have been exposed to D2L from other classes (although have never used the discussion function) and have even taken an on-line class. I wrote my literature review for my thesis using on-line searches. I took a workshop on Dreamweaver a few years ago and have the beginning of a webpage out there somewhere in cyberspace, but have never done any more with it. So, I guess I do know more about technology than I might have thought at first.

My very favorite technology is e-mail. I just love e-mail. I use it all the time, check it at least 3 times a day and go crazy when it's not available. I don't know how I'm going to handle two weeks in Ecuador without it. I'm hoping to be able to find some cybercafes but kind of doubt there will be many in the Amazon jungle. I'm sure I'll go through withdrawal.

Getting Read for Ecuador (again!)

Well, here's one of the reasons I don't like technology. I wrote a very nice piece for this blog. I saved it along the way, in addition to the autosaves it does. After previewing and editing a couple times, I finally hit "publish post." For some reason, it didn't post. The message said it might be a temporary problem and hit the back button to try again. When I hit the back button, I encountered an empty page. What a bummer!

I'm in the middle of getting ready for a three-week trip to Ecuador and my time is precious. It really hurts to have to do this again.

I'm going to do just this much and see if it will publish. Then I'll come back tomorrow and re-write some of what I had before.

Getting Ready for Ecuador

I'm in the process of packing, checking my passport, deciding what I need to take, letting friends and family know my plans, and all the other things that involved in taking a major international trip to a new destination.

I will leave Thursday for a three-week trip to Ecuador. It's very exciting.

But mixed in with all the trip preparations, I'm also feeling the need to do some work as a student. Today I prepared the Informed Consent Forms for participants in my thesis. I will start collecting data soon after I return, so having that piece of paper prepared puts me just that much closer to data collection.

The other thing I need to do is prepare as much as I can for my computer class. Since Caitlin (my Goddaughter/travel companion) has developed a very fully itinerary for us that will probably leave me without access to a computer for the next two weeks, I figure it will be good to do a little work before I go. I've been on D2L and have saved some work onto a flashdrive. I thought if I don't have internet access but have computer access I can at least do some reading. I'm also going to print out some helpful articles that I can read on my travel day, which will be quite long. (I leave here at 4:30 am and arrive in Quito at 10:00 pm.). I have a PDA that I'm going to try to use as well. After writing a little more here, I'm going to see if I can download some of the articles onto it. In the past I haven't been very successful download files, but maybe tonight will be different.

I've never had a blog, nor have I ever thought I would have a blog, so this is an interesting venture. I'm not really crazy about being public. I joined facebook a couple months ago because a friend of mine thought it would be fun. I actually have 4 or 5 friends there. I've had three more requests, but haven't accepted. Like I said, I don't like the idea of a lot of people being able to have access to my information.

I also have a webpage, or I should say my husband and I have a webpage. He set it up and he keeps it. He has shown me a couple times how to upload things to it, but I haven't tried. I also took a workshop a few years ago on Dreamweaver and have a webpage of my own that I created in the workshop. I never did much with it. I think it will be good for me to have to do that work again. It's something that I can and probably will use as a teacher so I need to get more familiar with it.

As I write all those things--having a PDA, a webpage, a being on facebook--it could sound like I'm pretty tech savy. However, don't be fooled. I feel very un-tech savy. I do use my computer all the time, but mainly for e-mail and internet searching (which I don't even do that very much). I love e-mail. I'd rather use e-mail than the telephone or snail mail. I'm on it all the time.

I'll be a lot more savy after this class. I'm excited about that. I'm ready to learn more about using technology and to start getting better connected with the "net generation."