A real 21st
century learning kicked me in the head this weekend while traveling to Michigan
to see my daughter, her husband and our granddaughter. Heading out, we had the Garmin, and our phones.
At one point, I was driving through Chicago and my husband was
navigating. Our course just didn’t seem
right, and I felt I really needed to see the big picture of where we were headed,
not just the next exit. And, maybe there
was a better route. So I said to my husband, “Just get out the Illinois road
map.” And then added, “But keep it down,
it’s embarrassing to be seen using that thing.”
But actually it did help. I
figured out the big picture and there wasn’t a better route. I felt much better.
At some point during the
weekend, I casually mentioned to my daughter that we had to get out the
Illinois map. She looked shocked and
horrified and said, “A ROAD MAP? WHY?” I became
embarrassed and defensive and started making excuses about how I hated my
Android Map App, the Garmin wasn’t updated, how we did try to keep the map out of the view of
other motorists, and if I had an iPhone instead of an Android, I’d have been
able to use it. Finally, I just said, “Actually
the map did help.” We laughed and she
shrugged.
I did notice during the course
of the weekend that my daughter used her phone for everything. I guess I just haven’t quite made that leap.
