7B

I think I would have been a fabulous digital native. At the very least I do possess quite a skill for multitasking. I'm sure my husband would readily attest to my short attention span and my lack of ability to retain the answers to the various questions I pose to him.  I have gotten up no less than 7, no wait, 8…make that 10 times from typing this very blog post (all immediate mommy duties of course) and yet I still have a running dialog of what I would like to say swimming around in my brain. Perhaps retaining information is in direct relation to the value the information holds to its possessor. That sounds good, I’ll be sure to inform my husband of that later… if I remember. 

Like these natives I am a voracious learner, although more for necessity sake than entertainment. When trying to distract any little person, never mind two, under the age of four, it is imperative to posses the knowledge to access the latest episode of the “Wonderpets” On Demand. To say nothing of the internal fortitude required to focus on ones studies as they repeatedly sing the “What’s gonna work?...Team Work!” theme song over and over again. At least it is a positive message.

And finally as all begins to quiet down for the evening I think I will go back to my salad of Palfrey, Gasser, Ribble and Lei. Most thankful for to my Creator for promising me in 2 Timothy 1:7 that sound mind that I am so thankful to possess.

6B

Reading "Overload" left me with a thought. Am I contributing to the litter on the side of the road on this information super highway? Is my blog adding more clog? Or as Palfrey and Gasser put it "this prolific expression can add to the amount of information that other must process."

What is my digital responsibility to this information ecosystem and what should I be teaching my natives in this regard? I truly have no idea. What would happen to the ever changing novelty of the Internet if our contributions were eventually limited due to information overload? Does the Internet have a capacity? If so, how close are we to it? These are just some of the thoughts that bounce around in my head, most of which I do not have the time to properly process.

I do think, however, the old saying "if its worth doing, its worth doing right" can be applied to this contemplation. I suppose at minimum I can tell my natives, along with myself, "if it will be causing clog.... you better make it a great blog."

Just thoughts

My children don't know what a telephone sounds like.... well they don't know that telephones used to just go "Ring.... Ring.... Ring".

This morning, during our usual commute I chose, for our listening pleasure, the musical styling of John Mayer. I plugged my iPhone into the adapter and selected his re-make of Tom Petty's "Free Falling"... the beginning notes of this song have a wonderfully calming effect on my nervous system. It's good for a mommy of four to have this state of mind when trying to deposit four children in three different places around town and still get to work by eight o'clock in the morning.

As the notes of this song begin to dance out of the car speakers three year old Christian shouts from the back of the Sequoia, "Mommy u pone is winging". I smile, sweet boy. "Free Falling" is also my ring tone.

Huerta 4B

Great conversation is a luxury in my life. With ever present little ones in tow who, just by their sheer nature, seem to absorb all energies around them there seems to be little time or energy for "adult conversations".

This last weekends travels afforded some visiting time. You know that kind of time where Adults can actually have a conversations without the interruptions of " I need juice mommy....I need to potty Mommy...I need_____ Mommy"  (Fill in the blank and you see fit, but I think you understand the point).

I had the pleasure of visiting with my Husbands ex-step family. Today's family structure sure does require more status descriptive words than every before..... but back to the topic.  These lovely ladies consisted of Grandma Karen, a retired educator,  Aunt Stephanie a current High School teacher, Lindsay (my sister-in law & digital native who made the cut by two years) and Kim, mother of the bride, and digital immigrant extraordinaire!

As we were checking out the musician for the reception that Kim found on Facebook, who was amazing by the way, the subject of Digital living came up. Actually I brought it up, well maybe just gave it the title. We were already having a conversation about digital living without giving it such a title. I shared some of the topic we have been going over in class. It seems the item of most concern with the elder ladies, the educators,  is the lack of humanity in today's digital culture.

They shared a real concern for the decreasing interpersonal skills. I shared some of the ideas we've discussed here in class, mainly digital equality, "computer access for everyone". I just wanted to hear their take on that particular subject. I would have to say the gist of the conversation was more in line with "What? Computer access for all? Aren't there more pressing needs in the world?"

I would leave the evening in concession to the belief that yes, I am sure there are more pressing issues than "computer access for all". But most satisfying of all, perhaps even delicious, was the conversation.