Little did I know 10 years ago that today I would be a "cyborg." A cyborg is a term used by anthropologists to describe symbiotic relationships of organic life and technological systems. My computer, and the things I do with it, has become such an integral part of my professional and personal life that without it (i.e. when it is in the shop), I feel like an amputee that has lost a limb or even a patient who's had a lobotomy. I don't see this dependence as sinister, anymore than I see a dependence on the written word as limiting. If Vygotsky were alive today, he would say that, like the written word and numerals, the computer is a cultural tool that mediates our learning and productivity. I can not imagine life or work without a computer just as I can't imagine it without books.

It all started about 10 years ago when I was in the middle of a research project in Omaha and my husband got a job offer from Kansas State University. To continue my project, I needed to become a "telecommuter." I purchased a personal computer and a modem so that I could connect to the computer in Omaha to communicate with project staff members and run analyses on my data. I will never forget the day I brought my computer home with 14 uninterpretable manuals the size of telephone books! I didn't even know what a floppy drive was at that point. It was three frustrating months and many conversations with computer folks here and there before I got it all working. But it was worth it because now I have the confidence that I can make the technology work for me.

Let me describe a typical day in the life of a cyborg. I usually spend my mornings in my home office. Here is a description of a recent day.

9 a.m. Checked EmailL (electronic mail)

• responded to emailed graduate students' reading reactions
• corresponded with husband who is on sabbatical in San Antonio about spring break travel plans
• replied to colleague in Sweden about possible trip to visit next summer
• read postings on an electronic discussion group (listserv) about Vygotsky and education
• read notice of upcoming faculty meeting and minutes of last meeting

10:30 a.m. Logged Onto World Wide Web

• Ordered a book on infant development from an electronic bookstore (http://www.amazon.com). Within minutes I received email confirmation and was told I will receive email to notify me when it is shipped.
  
• Remembered that my son's birthday was near, so I used Yahoo Search (http://www.yahoo.com) to find the homepage for the Dave Matthews Band and ordered a t-shirt to be sent to my home.
• Needed to make airline reservations for a conference in Washington, DC so I searched for the cheapest fares and made my own reservations and had the tickets mailed to my home.
• Searched the online KSU library catalogue for a book a doctoral student needed. It was checked out, so I searched the local public library's catalogue and found it there and emailed the student to let him know.
• Got on an electronic bulletin board for Tourette's Syndrome for a parent needing medication information. I read previous postings, posted a query of my own, and in a few hours I found replies from parents and physicians who monitor the bulletin board.
• Went to the ERIC web site (http://www.eric.ed.gov/) and printed out an Eric Digest and Eric Bibliography for my students interested in reading more about the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education.

Afternoon
I went into my office to teach and have office hours with students. At my office I also have a computer which allowed me to show my students how to gain information on the internet for writing their papers. Evening
My children were doing their homework. They use the web for homework and for entertainment. This was a typical night using the web:

• My 15 year old was doing a paper on metabolic disorders for cell biology. We started with Yahoo and searched until we found information on PKU.
• My 11 year old was preparing a multimedia presentation on the Alamo. We searched the web and found a chronology of events and pictures that we downloaded to a floppy disk that he could take to school.
• My 15 year old wants to go into aerospace engineering in college so we looked at the admission requirements for some of the colleges he is considering to make sure that he signs up for the right courses next year.
• With homework done, the kids spent some time downloading music and karaoke files from the internet to play on the synthesizer that we have hooked up to the computer. They found the theme song from "Back to the Future" and downloaded it.
• We were trying to decide where to go skiing so we searched and found information and trail maps at various ski areas in Colorado and New Mexico. We emailed the tourist information service at Taos, New Mexico to make reservations.

The overall impact of access to the web in our household and for my work has been tremendous. I find I spend less time on the phone seeking information and playing phone tag. I do all my browsing of information sources on the web and now only go to the library when I know that the information I need is there. I feel that I can be more productive and more efficient in all spheres of my life. I also feel more tuned in and connected to what is going on in my field even while I am spending more time at home.

Most offices and agencies are seeing the benefits of being hooked up to the internet, so many people can get access at their places of work. Often, public libraries have computers linked to the internet that are available to users. In some cities, coffee shops are springing up with computers connected to the internet. If you plan to get a computer for your home, you can access the internet through the phone lines with a modem. Be sure to get the fastest modem that you can afford (at least 28.8 bps). You will need to sign up for an account with an internet service provider or with a commercial online service. What is important, whether you use an internet service provider or a commercial online service, is that you are able to connect using a local phone call. If you have to pay for a long distance phone call, plus the subscription fee, the cost will be prohibitive.

Internet service providers are local businesses that have their own servers and allow you to subscribe to use it for a monthly fee. Check with computer stores for information on local providers. When you subscribe, you will get an account and software for email and for browsing the web (e.g. Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Explorer). You will pay a monthly fee just as for cable TV and you may have a choice of plans with differing prices depending on how many hours of access you want each month.

Commercial online services such as Prodigy, Compuserve, and America Online also offer internet access and email, and they also have a host of other features that are available only to their subscribers. For example, on Prodigy you can track your investments and download current stock quotes, make airline reservations, order personalized gifts, use travel guides, etc. You also have a choice of plans with different fees depending on how many hours you want per month. We use Prodigy and recently downloaded free software called Cyberpatrol that allows us to restrict the time of day and the number of hours that our children use the internet. It also lets us block out sites that contain material (e.g. violence, sex) that we don't want them exposed to. For a new user, an commercial online service may be the way to go. When you first get access to the internet, don't be surprised if you are up late at night surfing the net. You will be like a kid in a candy store for a few weeks. When the novelty wears off, you will settle down to a pattern of steady use. In our house, we average only 2-3 hours a day.

My 11 year old uses email regularly. He and I together learned how to create homepages recently. He has his own personal page containing family photographs, music files, and moving cartoon figures. I have put a readings course on the web this semester and maintain the home page for the Kansas Association for Infant Mental Health at http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~admurray/kaimh/. New software is making it easier everyday so join me and other cyborg professionals on the web today!

Submitted by Ann Murray, Associate Professor for Family Studies and Human Services, Kansas State University

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