My life is spread across the world, well at least more than most. 
This is a screen shot of what my computer looks like a lot on the weekends. My husband (who is currently living on another continent) and I over the past year have grown accustom to hanging out in Skype video chat land so much so that as you can see he is bird watching at the same time he is talking to me:) Of course because our separate in real life situation is temporary we have almost in a weird but fun way enjoyed living a very strange connected relationship via all things 1’s and 0’s. However this morning I video chatted with my grandparents for the first time. They were in awe that from across the world Shanghai to Arizona they could see and hear me and as my gramp’s said “well I guess this technology nonsense is not all that bad if it’s free.” Yep gramps that’s right it’s free and that got me thinking. In his eighty some years of life he has associated information and connectedness with cost. He loves airplanes and cars thus he paid for magazine subscriptions, he loved talking to his six children thus he put up with large long distance phone bills each month.
From an educational standpoint this really gets by mental juices following……how can school add value when being connected now is free….connected to information…..connected to each other…….connected to collaboration and innovation? I think back to what school must have been like for my grandpa in that he went to school to be connected to all the things that I now have access to for free. So what’s the point I’m not sure but at any rate I am truly proud of my grandparents for their attempts to connect to their grandchildren and children through Skype and Facebook and lucky to live in a world where connectedness is a given.
