Connected...

Today we spent some time in class creating blogs and becoming really comfortable with RSS and other subscription features found on the 'net. As I now have a bloglines account and am able to get instant updates when anyone in this class blogs, it made me think about how connected people have become on the web these days. It's no longer good enough to say "sorry, I could not get a hold of you, I wasn't at home". We expect people to have cell phones with Text Messaging so there is never a time of the day in which we cannot reach them. As a teacher, this is good and concerning in a lot of ways. Firstly, parents can be seamlessly integrated with our classrooms in many ways. They can have a clear understanding of what is happening in our classrooms and there will be no more "well Mom, we didn't learn anything in school today". It also allows for parents to look at our practices closely and question some assignments/activities, etc, but if they are questioning something, perhaps we should be looking a bit closer anyway.