When I think about my early years as a Japanese language teacher, I used to spend a great amount of time creating resources from cardboard and paper, gathering objects such as McDonald toys, making OHP transparencies, and searching and ordering videos and films. In a trip to Japan in 1992, I hauled back a huge Japanese word processor that I had searched Akihabara (the electronics area of Tokyo) to buy. It gave me the ability to type in Japanese script which I was wildly excited about. About this time I bought my first computer for home. It was a desktop with a tower memory that sat under the desk. My children were using CDs such as Encarta and Carmen Sandiego. No mobiles, no laptops, no tablets, no internet at home yet, no wifi at work or in public places. The noises at home were largely of us talking and children playing. The landline phone rang now and again and I was getting used to the audio of the CDs that were continuously played.
Roll forward to 2017, I have two laptops - a Mac and PC, a tablet and two mobile phones - an iphone and an android. With the Mac I use cloud storage and as the PC has been with me for a while it has considerable internal storage and I have two external hard drives which contain professional and personal files using Microsoft software. That is me alone, not withstanding the other members of the household that have their own multiple devices. The noises at home are still talking and laughter even though the children have grown up and left. A landline phone sits on the bench. It is still here because it comes with the internet package but the only calls I get are recorded messages advertising companies send. However, with notifications on there is always one device or another beeping, purring or popping with their continuous messages reminding me that work is forever waiting to be done.
So, the ubiquitous nature of technology is an enabler as it connects me easily to the people and work that I need to do, but it also calls on me to be disciplined and thoughtful, to organise and stick to my off-screen time. Anytime and Anyplace gives me the freedom to choose the time and the place, but I must ensure that I am not modelling or espousing to others Everytime and Everyplace. Let's use ubiquity to enable rather than to pressure, to connect rather than to bind, to empower rather than to enforce.
