Free To Be.

Since the Internet is now fixed at my house I can think about how we depend on it so much!

Good, I think something finally worked and I could successfully get to the Assignments Blog and post my assignment! I don't think I should delete my previous post because I think I may just write about how my family, I, and others rely so much on the internet and email and we think it should ALWAYS work! You should see my house and my family when a computer, the servers, printer, or any other electronic device we depend on doesn't work! Or the power's out! Wow, you don't want to be around us when something like this isn't working. But the really cool thing is that we always put our heads together and figure out a way for something to work. I put my Life Quest assignment on a thumb drive so I knew that I could take it to the library and post it from there (WAIT, actually I'm not sure if you can plug a thumb drive in.. well anyways..) if I needed to. Or worst case, I could go to a friends house or neighbors or my Dad's office. Even though we think it's always the 'end of the world' it's actually not! There are ways to figure out how to do things and I don't always believe this.. but we can live without email and internet (people have done it for a long time). But I wonder how many people are like us? Could these kinds of people live without online calendars, emails, phone conversations, iTunes music? Obviously, we CAN, but do we want to? It wouldn't be easy but it's possible. Sometimes I need a kind of reminder that yes, windows can crash, computers and servers may not work all the time, and printers can jam but life does go on and there is usually a way around the problem (but maybe I could be spared being reminded of that at 1AM and I have a paper to turn in??) I'll write more tomorrow. I hope I didn't rant too much : ) [EDIT/ADD 2/26/06 7:30PM:] I've been thinking more about this idea and how the internet, computers, and other electronic devices are such cool devices and there are so many neat ways to use them. But we need to find some in between place to be so we don't JUST use all these cool devices and totally depend on them. Some examples of the ways that we use computers and internet are Groove, this tool that you can have meetings by using a chat, a whiteboard that everyone can add to and you can have as many boards as you want to. My mom is communcating through Groove with a coworker in Germany and has communicated with others in England, Texas, and Mexico. And she couldn't have done all of the meetings she's having over the phone or in person all the time that would definitely not be feasible. And she sets up all her online meetings through email and has only met the person she's working with once! But since they are typing constantly to each other they're still getting to know each other very well. And there are so many other devices and programs that are using the internet that wouldn't be possible through phone calls and having to be in person all the time. There are online classes, online schools, online shopping.. some of these tools are just for making these easier for users (like online shopping) but there are other tools that are totally new and being invented because of the internet and computers! With all of these amazing and inventive ideas being used on computers and through the internet, it's hard to remember that we need to have backups and remember that the internet and our computers are not totally under our control. Also, another interesting thought is what about people in other countries? They don't even have access to all this neat stuff! Or they aren't allowed by their government to have access to it even if they have the resources. Now that there is all of these devices that we can connect and communicate with others all around the world (not that we couldn't before the internet was invented but just that there are easier ways now) and not everyone has the money, the freedom, and the places they can use these resources. Today I went to the Stanford Cubberly Education Library to do my math homework since my parents were going to a concert at Stanford. And I was looking at all of these interesting books and magazines briefly and I saw TONS about blogging! Also, as I was reading a teachers magazine I found this article about this Global Classroom that is happening in a high school or middle school in Maine and schools in Russia. The schools in Maine had computers with high speed internet but unfortunately the schools in Russia didn't. BUT one school ended up getting money from this group called Project Harmony (I'll add the links to my blog soon) so they could buy a number of computers, high-speed internet access, a printer, and a scanner! A teacher in another school even brought his students to his house or to internet cafes so they could communicate with the students in Maine. This shows that people can find the resources or get help from others. I think this is enough for today but I have some other neat things to blog about tomorrow (Groove, these teachers magazine with how blogging is being used in the classroom, and a talk I went to last week that was all about learning)!

posted by Cassie @ 2/26/2006 01:31:00 AM