What with it being "the season" and all, the past few days have been a whirlwind of travel. I don't particularly enjoy traveling, but the opportunity to visit with family - especially those that I havent seen in years made it well worth the 15 combined hours spent in the car. Though I did learn the important lesson. If you're stuck in traffic in New York City and you need to find a restroom, traffic will never break, and Long Island will screw you. File that away - one day it will mean something to you ;-)
As is typically the case during family gatherings, I feel as though I spend a lot of time catching up. This in and of itself isnt particularly unusual, but it is the first time I've gone home with my thinking cap in perpetual on mode. Maybe its a sign of an obsessive unable to unplug. Maybe its a sign I enjoy thinking about the kind of stuff I write about here. Its probably a little of both and somewhere right in the middle all at the same time. But regardless, I found myself paying particular attention to the technology usage of the young peeps around me.
Truth be told, paying attention was unnecessary. The use of cell phones among the teenagers that filled my holiday season was about as subtle as the box that my copy of Rock Band came in (*makes a sound of glee*).
Now I've long since understood that a cell phone is as much as part of the modern birthing process as an umbilical cord. But there was something about watching a herd of adolescent females whip out their who's who of expensive cell phones that made all the statistics very real. At one point, during a pre-Christmas party, a 13 year old girl schooled me on the know battery problems with my particular Verizon LG phone. Then she pulled out her Voyager, and no doubt inwardly laughed at me. This wasnt a technical person. This was just a regular teenage girl. Just like all the other regular teenage girls who were just as cellular proficient. Scary.
In a blog that I had abandoned due to my own lack of interest well before I started this one, I had written the draft of a post called "Bite Size Cellular Chunks". I don't really remember the specifics of the post, but the delicious sounding title has always stayed with me =) But after seeing the cell phone in its native habitat, the idea has returned to me.
Is the cell phone a good medium through which to deliver educational content? Would students be more likely to participate in a class discussion if they could share brief thoughts from their cell phones - almost like a class based twitter? Or use their cell phones to watch mobile ready video clips that pertain to a course topic? Or review brief class notes through their favorite little cellular buddy?
I'm far from an expert on most of the things I talk about in this blog, but my knowledge of cell phones is defiantly sub par. I get them, but truth be told they just aren't my thing. So these ideas are most certainly from an "outside looking in" perspective. Maybe educational content on a cell phone is invasive and obnoxious. But in case you havent noticed, I have this thing about engaging students where they roll. And after a very digital native Christmas, I have a newfound appreciation for just how much rolling goes on in the mobile world.
Oh, and Happy New Year!
As is typically the case during family gatherings, I feel as though I spend a lot of time catching up. This in and of itself isnt particularly unusual, but it is the first time I've gone home with my thinking cap in perpetual on mode. Maybe its a sign of an obsessive unable to unplug. Maybe its a sign I enjoy thinking about the kind of stuff I write about here. Its probably a little of both and somewhere right in the middle all at the same time. But regardless, I found myself paying particular attention to the technology usage of the young peeps around me.
Truth be told, paying attention was unnecessary. The use of cell phones among the teenagers that filled my holiday season was about as subtle as the box that my copy of Rock Band came in (*makes a sound of glee*).
Now I've long since understood that a cell phone is as much as part of the modern birthing process as an umbilical cord. But there was something about watching a herd of adolescent females whip out their who's who of expensive cell phones that made all the statistics very real. At one point, during a pre-Christmas party, a 13 year old girl schooled me on the know battery problems with my particular Verizon LG phone. Then she pulled out her Voyager, and no doubt inwardly laughed at me. This wasnt a technical person. This was just a regular teenage girl. Just like all the other regular teenage girls who were just as cellular proficient. Scary.
In a blog that I had abandoned due to my own lack of interest well before I started this one, I had written the draft of a post called "Bite Size Cellular Chunks". I don't really remember the specifics of the post, but the delicious sounding title has always stayed with me =) But after seeing the cell phone in its native habitat, the idea has returned to me.
Is the cell phone a good medium through which to deliver educational content? Would students be more likely to participate in a class discussion if they could share brief thoughts from their cell phones - almost like a class based twitter? Or use their cell phones to watch mobile ready video clips that pertain to a course topic? Or review brief class notes through their favorite little cellular buddy?
I'm far from an expert on most of the things I talk about in this blog, but my knowledge of cell phones is defiantly sub par. I get them, but truth be told they just aren't my thing. So these ideas are most certainly from an "outside looking in" perspective. Maybe educational content on a cell phone is invasive and obnoxious. But in case you havent noticed, I have this thing about engaging students where they roll. And after a very digital native Christmas, I have a newfound appreciation for just how much rolling goes on in the mobile world.
Oh, and Happy New Year!
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