Sitting on the plane heading out to the west coast it dawned on me — I NEED bandwidth. I try to sit and listen to my iPod, pay attention to the in-flight movie, and generally just try to ease my nerves with a few drinks … but when push comes to shove, I need an active connection. Here I sit in between strangers, kids walking the isles, and disinterested airline employees trying as hard as I can to kill time by typing a blog post in text edit … I even have trouble blogging when I’m not sitting on the live Internet.

I guess I’m not alone in this discovery, but man it feels strange when you actually discover that you have a serious addiction. A crutch that keeps you going. What kind of person NEEDS bandwidth? I’m not the typical net generation participant. I am too old for that. At 32 I am well beyond the “kids who are wired differently …” but it seems to me that all the time I spend in the connected World has moved me somewhere in between old skool (as the kidz would say) and net gen. I’m not kidding around — I need bandwidth. Strange, but true.

I can only imagine what students coming up today — say in middle schools — will be like when they are my age traveling across the country. How in the hell will they keep it together? All I have to say is that someone needs to really figure out bandwidth for the coach class or those kids are going to go postal in mid air! I’ve only had Dashboard for a week or so and it is already part of my World — F12, where the hell is my info? Imagine the kid who will have the type of always-on expectations for the next 15 years. I’m not sure I’m even making any sense … I find myself just rambling. Must be the withdraw hitting me.

Is there a lesson in all this? Something that I need to take back to my classroom? Something that will spark great discussion? You know, I bet there is, but I’ll approach it from a different perspective. The perspective that my students bring to it … with the idea that bandwidth, always on, that pervasive access is good. Too many of my colleagues come at it from the other direction — that we need to get away from it. I wrote somewhere (while I was connected) not too long ago that I am more relaxed when I am ON, not OFF. Man, this flight is reminding me how true that is. Sorry for the rant … its the withdraw talking. I need to get off this plane and get this post published — now, which blog does it go to first? Maybe the airport has a hot spot …