News & Views
Past imperfect
By Terry Freedman
Wed, 24 Sep 2008, 18:59

Is the opposite of being online, being offline? I discovered today that, in a very practical sense, it isn't. Here are some thoughts on that, and the forthcoming issue of Practical ICT.

I started the day full of grandiose ideas. My to-do list is always impossibly long, but I derive a great deal of satisfaction from crossing things off. (In fact, it almost certainly wouldn't be as long as it is if I didn't, but still.) However, in any one day, I try to be reasonable in my expectations.

Today, as a case in point, I'd intended to:

1. Write a short post for my My Writes blog;
2. Type up some notes I took on a recent training course;
3. Practise using the application I had made notes about;
4. Write a post for my Ed Tech diary blog over at Hot Chalk;
5. Complete the proof-reading of Practical ICT;
6. Publish the aforementioned journal;
7. Write an article for the ICT in Education website;
8. Respond to some blogs;
9. Respond to emails;
10. listen to the Women of Web 2.0 podcast featuring Elaine and me;
11. Prepare for tomorrow's activities; and
12. Do a spot of shopping in order to get some fresh air.

I usually turn my phone off when I have a list like that, but on this occasion I didn't. Not that it would have helped very much. At the time of writing this I have so far been able to tick off the following numbers from the above list:

#1

#2

#5

#9

#10

#12.

Pathetic! But not really my fault. Here is what happened during the day, in sequence:

1. We had an unexpected visit from the mother of a friend of ours.
2. Someone came to read the gas meter.
3. Someone called to deliver a parcel containing copies of a book I helped to write.
4. Someone else came to deliver a parcel of stuff that my wife had ordered.
5. Someone came to check our burglar alarm system.
6. Someone came to check our gas installation.

It's quite a miracle that I achieved as much as I did, but the consequence is that I still have to get the Practical ICT journal out, still have to write the Ed Tech Diary blog and am also hoping to get some leisure time in as well.

So this is what Victorian England was like. Like many people, I should imagine, I sometimes regret how available I am all the time: through phones, social networks, instant messaging and so on. In fact, I wrote about that recently, funnily enough. But in the 19th century in England, I recall reading, there were constant interruptions throughout the day from tradesmen calling and street vendors shouting. So I suppose in a way that was even worse, except for the fact that the sort of people who other people would call on, and who would be in when they called, would have servants to act as a buffer or filter between themselves and the world.

It seems to me that our technology is very much a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I can enjoy, say, a range of music that would have been inconceivable in times past, without even stirring out of my chair. On the other hand, there are constant demands on my time which, being highly connected yet not rich enough to be able to employ servants, I am not always able to counter effectively.

Nevertheless, it was the experience I had today, of the doorbell continually ringing, that made me more fully appreciate a very important fact. Our current technology, by enabling us to switch it off, see who is calling, forward voicemail and so on allows us, paradoxically, to enjoy a level of privacy that our Victorian forebears could only dream of.

Postscript

I mentioned that I am working on Practical ICT. This issue will be really interesting. One of the guest writers is a teenager from the USA, and the issue covers Assessing Pupils' Progress and the Single Level Test, Intellectual Property, and Special Educational Needs, amongst other things. Look out for it!

© Terry Freedman Wed, 24 Sep 2008