Episode Three: Histories of Life Before and After Computers

Episode Three

Title: Logging On: Histories of Life Before and After Computers

Student Producer: Cali Cooper (member of the class of 2026)

Episode Description:

This episode explores the shifts in how technology has shaped our work, communication, and accessibility over the past century. Through firsthand accounts, we’ll examine the transitions from manual typewriters, to personal computers, and the rise of the internet and social media, including the important role the University of Illinois has played at the forefront of some of these innovations. 

Featuring:

Celia Elliot, the Director of External Affairs in the University of Illinois Department of Physics, grew up in Tolono, Illinois, bought her first Apple IIe in 1985. She has since worked with technology in federal research administration as it shifted from paper proposals to online systems.

Margaret Lovell, a retired science writer who has lived all over the United States, settling in Urbana, Illinois in 2022.

Paula Kaufman, now retired, moved to Champaign-Urbana in 1999 to become the first Dean of Libraries and University Librarian at the University of Illinois. She also was the first recipient of the Juanita J. and Robert E. Simpson University Library Deanship. 

John Dudley, a Professor Emeritus in Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois who grew up on a farm in eastern Indiana. After receiving his PhD in plant breeding and genetics, he worked with the U.S Department of Agriculture on sugar beets and alfalfa and later returned to the Midwest to work on corn genetics. 

Dennis Wenger, a local, central Illinois farmer who lives and farms in Fairbury. 

Colleen Bushell, an original designer of MOSAIC, the first popular web browser to display images with text. She currently serves as Director of Health Care Innovation at National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).