It moves so slowly and with such modest fanfare that often it goes unnoticed until historians write about it. The fax machine gradually disappeared into oblivion. It disappeared like the telex and so many other devices before it. What is a slide rule? No need to cite more examples. Culture is no different.
Where are the buffalo? The Indians? Genuine change sneaks up on us like the night sky. And then it is dark. I have been observing the education scene and commenting on its reluctance to change. I am wrong. The change element in education is almost complete.
And it snuck up on me like the night sky. More than 100 million iPads and equivalents, placed in the hands of students of all ages with Internet access, have caused the change. Driverless cars, depositing checks by smart device imaging, Google searching for the truth and a billion videos on just about every subject you can imagine is now a click, a SIRI request, or a finger swipe away. Now this writer's observation may be characterized by some people as ubiquitous, but still it is no less important. Why? Because I have another derivative observation.
When the current generation is complaining about what a lousy job my generation has left the world in, I suggest they are likely complaining using devices and technology that we developed. If the world is a easier place to live and I believe it is, it is a better place because of the technology that my generation has left. It is a marvelous legacy.
The current generation is challenged to do the same. They are challenged to use the magnificent communication and education devices that has been provided to make their footprint as indelible as ours.
webtalkwithbob
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