Hybrid lives at home, but not at school?

Think of all the ways we (adults) have integrated technology into our lives. Everything from basic communications to filing taxes to enjoying music and movies. The list is extensive. Does this mean we are living "hybrid lives"? We have some things that are not virtual, while other things are? Or, has the technology just become ubiquitous and thus not really a way of life, but just more -- LIFE itself?

For me, the web (and the outcropping of technologies) where an add on for the first few years of my exposure. THEN -- ALL OF A SUDDEN -- the concept that they were add ons to my life dissipated, and they just became "part of" my life. Now, I am in no way a superuser. But, without the web and the technologies I use, my life would be missing something for sure.

So, now think about kids (k-12). They are not from my generation. They did not have to make a transition from simply using tech tools to living by them. (That sounds strong, but I will leave it for now).

As I watch the kids get on the bus this morning, I think of how many of them will go to school, enter a classroom, and be asked to "turn off" from their technology assisted world? How many of them will sit in a classroom, listening to a teacher teach using the same methods that I learned from? I am not being critical, it is just a question. But, it is a good question.

Are we asking our kids to go to school and "disconnect"? If we are, we should rethink that. How many of us go to work and disconnect from the technology and tools that help us live? Very few I would imagine.

So, maybe this is our challenge. Maybe the challenge is to understand how kids live and how we actually live DAILY and apply that to education.