Techlearning blog

The big thing, or one of the big things, at the moment is most certainly connectivity: via Skype, Twitter, blogs, wikis, and even in person. Much of it is planned, most of it is virtual, ie online. But sometimes unplanned meetings in real life can be quite extraordinary.

Recently, two unplanned events turned out to be great experiences. The first involved members of my family. Last year, when I attended a conference in San Diego, I was able to see a cousin of mine for the first time in 40 years, and another cousin (his sister) for the first time in 20. Around May of this year I was wondering whether I'd made a mistake not booking to go the Building Learning Communities conference in Boston, a doubt which intruded more and more once people started saying what a fantastic time they'd had there.

But then in early June I received an email from my cousin, the one who lives in San Diego, announcing that he was coming over to Europe and would be in England in the week of the BLC Conference. We had a marvellous family reunion with him, his wife, and my cousin and his wife who live about an hour's drive from us (but whom we also never see).

As if that wasn't enough, Michael, my cousin from England, told us that he had discovered two ancient photographs in his mother's house, and we were able to work out that the man in the photo must have been our great grandfather. He had something of my father's looks, and I have something of his looks. It's a weird sort of feeling, and another example of connectivity, but over time.

We're now all determined not to lose touch again: it's so easy to do, but short-sighted: after all, family is family, and we all get on really well together too.

Of course, had I gone to the BLC conference, I wouldn't have had the experience, and Elaine (my wife) wouldn't have met my American cousin and his wife.

Yesterday, we had intended to drive to a pleasant seaside resort for the day. It's about 100 miles from where we live, and therefore about a two and a half hour journey. My wireless router had other ideas: when we arrived back home on Sunday evening, it was dead, and so 9 am saw me entering an electronics store to buy either a new router, a new lead, or both. It turned out that the power cable had blown. By the time I'd returned home and sorted it all out, it was too late to sensibly travel 100 miles, so we opted to go to Maldon in Essex instead. There then started the series of events which led my meeting an ex-colleague:

1. We got lost, due to the fact that the map we were using bore only a passing resemblance to the roads as they are in real life. We ended up going round in a circle.

2. The fish and chip restaurant we were hoping to visit turned out to be closed, so we opted for a nice-looking restaurant near the car park we found, near the top of the high street.

3. I sat facing the window (which I don't usually do).

It was whilst sitting there that I happened to look up just as my ex-colleague was walking past. I raced out of the restaurant and accosted her, which is when the exchange I described in the opening to this piece took place. We ended up spending a wonderful afternoon and evening with her and her husband, and I took some nice photos of the area into the bargain.

What educational lessons do I learn from these experiences? Two, in fact:

1. Meticulous planning of every last nanosecond of the school week is all very well, but we should also leave room for serendipity.

2. Despite being an internet and technology addict, I do think there's a lot to be said for meeting up with people in real life!