Looking through the Horizon Report, I think over the effect of mobile computers like the iPhone. I never was a huge fan of cell phones as a replacement of the house phone. Sure there are things I love about it: emergency phone calls when an engine starts on fire 30 miles from home; accidentally dialing someone I haven’t talked to in years, resulting in a nice reunion; and the unfortunate, yet obnoxious, “Sweetie, did you want Chubby Hubby, or Cherry Garcia?” However, along with these conveniences came the expectation that I would answer my phone 24 hours a day–something I was not willing to do, much to the chagrin of my cell phone smitten friends and family who think nothing of 5 calls in 30 minutes.
Handheld computers pose a similar dilemma to me. I now am the smitten one, ogling iPhones every chance I get, wondering if I’m ready to sell my soul back to AT&T (despite our messy divorce four years ago) for internet everywhere, or if I should settle (and settle down a bit) for an iPod Touch and the seemingly ubiquitous wi-fi hotspots. Despite my crush, I can’t help but feel like the more mobile we become, the more I’ll be expected to be online, just as I was expected to carry my phone with me wherever I went. Sure, “this is an opportunity for higher education to reach its constituents wherever they may be,” but what if those constituents wanted not to be reached…
The opportunities are amazing, and again, I’m hoping to write these posts from an iPod Touch in the near future. I’m just glad that, for now, I still get to decide when I want to be online, and when I want to leave online behind.
