Getting away from it all adds perspective…Duh

5 comments change, Conferences, rants

Jan 24

It’s been over a year since I’ve effectively been away from technology for more than about 2 days. That meant, 141 unanswered emails, and over 1000+ unread feeds and pages of twitter I’ll never read.

Truthfully it’s not even 5 complete days without access. I’ve grabbed a few minutes here and there between my father’s dialup connection and some downtown wireless. Not even sure why I bothered. I managed to answer a few urgent emails and poke my head in the “twitter staff room” but that was about it. If it wasn’t for the online class I’m teaching I really shouldn’t have bothered.

I typically spent over 8 hours a day online. Is that normal? I don’t know. It is my job and my passion so it is what it is. With that time, I’ve learned lots, developed some expertise along with some pretty strong philosophies.  But during my hiatus, I realize as many do, that being disconnected is hard. While I enjoyed my break, didn’t really think about other stuff, when I did have a moment to think I wondered what was going on out there. What was I missing? I wasn’t learning they way I was used to. But for many, even those that want to, they don’t have 8 hours a day to devote to this.

I have to think more deeply about what is really important. When I only have a couple of hours, minutes with people, what is it that I really need to communicate. What things are really significant and what things can be disposable?  I’ve never talked to teachers about twitter for example. Not because I don’t think it’s valuable but for most it’s a bit overwhelming as an entry point of connections. Even blogging, while it is simple to do, offers many very important opportunities, it may be not be critical.

I like Carolyn Foote’s post on 15 minutes a day (Mr. Jakes idea) But of course a starting point is required. Even 15 minutes a day, while great is challenging for me because I’m used to working on 40 times that much.

As I sit here for one of the sessions at FETC, I hear a woman say, “Slow down. I don’t know a wiki from a walki. Tell me where to start.” Of course that’s tough to answer. If I polled a 1000 of my readers, I’d get a broad range of responses, none of which would likely be wrong.

As the Heath brother’s write, I  have the knowledge curse.

Here’s the great cruelty of the Curse of Knowledge: The better we get at generating great ideas—new insights and novel solutions—in our field of expertise, the more unnatural it becomes for us to communicate those ideas clearly. That’s why knowledge is a curse. But notice we said “unnatural,” not “impossible.” Experts just need to devote a little time to applying the basic principles of stickiness.


Kelly Christopherson has similar thoughts. This post has no answers just ramblings and reflections. Every time I write over a couple of days, I find it tough to string the thoughts together. But it’s my space and Rob Wall says you can just write for yourself so I did. But as always your thoughts and comments are critical to my learning so drop a thought on this if you have one. Always looking for stickiness.

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  • http://edtechhacks.com Britne Rockwell

    “While I enjoyed my break, didn’t really think about other stuff, when I did have a moment to think I wondered what was going on out there. What was I missing? I wasn’t learning [the] way I was used to.”

    This really resonated with me. While I enjoy the occasional day or two of being “unplugged” – I’m not the same kind of person. I learn a lot from my “connected” life – blogs, Twitter, social networks, and the like. It’s integral, for me at least, to “keep up” in the field, to keep learning.
    I feel like if I unplug for a day, I’m missing out on something great I could have learned.

    Reading your post made me think for a minute – no matter what I *think* I’m missing out on, there’s still a lot that I know that I could share with others. Communication makes up the other half of the picture.

    Sorry if my reply was also “no answers just ramblings and reflections” – you’re right, I need to work on communication as well, and articulate these thoughts.

  • http://www.budtheteacher.com Bud Hunt

    I think that knowing, being downright absolutely certain, that I’m going to miss really interesting and wonderful people and experiences and knowledge and being okay with that is the biggest lesson I’ve learned over the last few years.

  • http://technotuesday.edublogs.org Cathy Nelson

    I too learn so much from my connectivity. My wonder is this. Does your family get aggravated with your semi connected-ness from home? Just recently my family said to me “do you realize you’ve been on your laptop ALL day?” It was a Sunday afternoon, and by golly they were vegging in front of the TV. Yep I was semi conscious of ball games and other stuff happening during the day’s events, but I was also semi tuned in to learning from my network. I didn’t really miss anything, and i was right there with them all day. But I did get the distinct impression they were feeling a bit neglected last Sunday. What can I say? it’s an addiction, and there are worse vices I could have.

  • http://abandonedstuff.com Saskboy

    I try to unplug for at least a handful of days in a year. In my trip to Toronto last week, I didn’t take a laptop even though I knew I’d have highspeed in my hotel room if I wanted it. I was better off for it. I was more mobile with one less bag, and I spent more time in the “meatspace world” instead of seeing everything through my computer screen. Sure I probably missed hearing about a war somewhere, an election, or a dead celebrity, but it’s better to practice being “alive” like humans from 15+ years ago, than living those extra days “online”.

  • Brittany Eryn Ward

    Before entering your ECMP 300 class, I thought I was pretty up to date on technology. I emailed, I could text, I had an idea of what a things like a wiki and a blog were. After our first meeting, I was over my head with all of this technology talk. I was so intimadated but at the same time excited to learn more. I was so euthanistic with all the new tools I could introduce when I do have my own classroom. There was one problem with that though. The time issue and getting into the habit of bloging and keeping on top of technology and what it can help me with in the classroom. I am not at an awkward in between stage and I feel I will continue to be in that stage for the rest of my teaching career. To explain that statement a little further, nobody in my close circle of friends or family even knows what a blog is, so my first problem was how do I talk about it. The solution to that problem is with things like twitter and creating an online support system, but call me old fashion I like to discuss outloud face to face things like technology. My second problem is that technology in the classroom cannot be done without support from parents, students, and other staff. Depending on the school I am employed with I may not have a support staff and a few technology wizards that could help me out when I am having problems. A few other worries that go along with that are what if the students aren’t patient, what if a few parents disapprove, what if the staff are not keen on the idea. I think today technology has not been fully accepted into the classroom and I feel that more traditional methods are still focused on in school (example the ECMP 300 class is an elective for some education students). I guess then again you have the support of your online teaching community, but again I like to hash things out face to face. What I was planning on commenting on before this turned into a huge ramble about my fears is that you raised a strong point that needs to be taken into consideration that students are going to be experiencing different levels of technology in our classroom and how do we consider that and make all students comfortable with technology? How do we make others aware of the positives of technology and the extras it can bring to the classroom? Sorry my response was so off topic but after reading through a couple of your posts like the cell phone’s in school and the $100 dollar laptop this is the feeling and questions I am left with!

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