"I" guess "I" am finally a member of the cult...

I finally did it. (Pardon the pun). I received some Best Buy gift cards for my birthday, and I picked up an Ipod. I thought I would never do it, as I am perfectly content listening to my CDs in my car, Internet radio early in the classroom, and even singing myself (I am not very good, but I entertain myself without causing too much distress on others). I struggled with what I could do with the gift cards. I already have a good digital camera, a digital camcorder, a fairly new laptop and desktop computer. In my classroom I have a good scanner as well. What more do I need? My wife asked if perhaps I wanted an Ipod, so yesterday I picked up a Shuffle.

Over the summer, I started riding a bicycle again. It was awesome, especially in the early hours of the morning. When I think back to the first truly portable audio component (the Walkman!), it felt like such a revolutionary item to have. It was relatively small and light compared to that boom box my buddy Scott used to wheel around. It made it possible to take your tunes with you, although more than one cassette (remember those???) made it quite cumbersome. Now, I can bring this teeny tiny thing with me and bring 1GB of music with me. I am not one of those people that need 300GB of music files. I don't have that kind of time or interest.

I loaded up some songs without going to that insane ITunes Music store. My musical tastes run the gamut. I have Dr. Dre and Eminem sharing drive space with the three tenors. KRS-1 from old school BDP and LL Cool J sit contently alongside Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Louis Prima. Pink Floyd and Led Zepplin can jam next to Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine. My musical motto is ABC. "Anything But Country" - my apologies go out to country music fans.. I just don't get it.

Anyway...
I chose the picture above because this is the world of our children. Everything is accessible. This includes music, but also any information that is needed. It is also a place of personal space. Ipods and bluetooth headpieces make it easy to close out the rest of the world, and that is a double edged sword. As I type here I am listening to my IPOD, but I don't think I oculd hear a knock at the door (I like good music kind of loud). On one hand, is this helping to create a society that is so self-absorbed that they don't care to or understand how to interact with others? On the other hand, is this helping to create a society that can more easily multitask and thus make the insanity of this on demand need it now world more manageable?

Is this how our students should be learning? This is how many of them are spending a good of time. Think about your answer for a bit.. a good JayZ song just came on, and my bike is calling my name (as if I can hear anything now).