Can you hear me now?

Our presenter for this week was Alec Couros and he kept the bar set high for how informational it was. The main thing that I took home at the end of the day, however, was the need to embrace new communication tools as they come available. So now, what does that really mean to me?

http://www.activegarage.com/
it-is-the-roc-not-the-roi-stupid

This takes me back a few years now. To think these simple tools (telephone, notes, letters) were the basis for communication as I grew up is just crazy. I remember having a "pen pal" in Vancouver that I corresponded with about different skating events we were each participating in and just to stay in touch. The amount of time to send and receive those dang letters was ridiculous, and you never really knew if they were getting to their destination or not. Plus, if it does get lost, are we really going to write it out again? No! Well we could use the phone, but then being young and having my parents paying the phone bill, and the amount of time I would have been on it long distance calling, I could not consciously do that either. So it was waiting for the return letter to come, hoping it would get here sooner than later, even though I knew better.

Now, fast forward fifteen years and I am sitting here today with (seemingly) endless options at my fingertips. I have my cell phone in my pocket (no not a smartphone, I still have a dumbphone), my laptop in front of me, my iPod on my docking station (currently playing a wicked Skrillex playlist FYI), and our fax machine in the office upstairs. Now this list is nothing like some could put together, but I am nothing like the people that would have even more devices. This is a way of life now and we need to be able to use all of the sources of communication that are available to us and to the best of our abilities.

Then the question stands... If we get to use all of these devices in our daily lives, why is it that when we are at school, our students cannot use theirs? If they know how to use them properly and they do not abuse the privilege, get them on their iPods, smart phones, tablets, or whatever else they may have. They are going to be using those for a lot of their lives so they may as well get to be "masters" of them.