Then and now

I was tidying through some drawers recently and came across some photographs from my OT Graduation ceremony in 1991. I delved a little deeper and found more pictures from my time at St Katherines College Liverpool, all of which brought back fond memories of places and people I don’t see so much now and I got to reminiscing about my training.

Undoubtedly I had a great time and learned enough to graduate and begin working as an Occupational Therapist. Much of the content and teaching methodology of my training is relevant today, but I do wonder how we managed without the internet, email and computers. My assignments were handwritten and information was gleaned from books or Journals during long hours in the library. Feedback and tutorial support was always face to face and excusing late work by citing the crashing of a computer was unheard of, but many papers were chewed by cats or drenched by coffee at the critical hand in hour (do you know how long it takes to rewrite 4 thousand words by hand!!!).

In light of the increasing use of technology and the now commonplace nature of the internet I wonder if my education was somewhat limited. I don’t feel that it was, but would I study now without making recourse to the internet? I would feel I was missing potentially relevant information and the opportunity for speedy communication with tutors and peers. Not to mention the advantages of file sharing, wikis and of course blogs. But then maybe I am somewhat evangelical about it and I’d be interested to here the views of others who studied before the dawn of technology. Maybe it was actually much simpler then?