Techlearning blog

Something happened to me yesterday which made me think about all this.

It's embarrassing to admit this, but halfway on a journey to a school I was visiting, I suddenly realised with horror that I'd got on the wrong train. This is something I've never done before, and I can only put it down to being a bit tired, having only had about three hours' sleep and tearing across London in order to make a train connection after a series of transport glitches.

Here in London, and England, we have a number of places with the same or similar names. I imagine this is the case in my countries. For example, in London there are two stations called Shepherds Bush, and two stations called Hammersmith. If you happened to travel to the wrong one it would not be the end of the world: in the former case the stations are about half a mile apart, and in the latter they are about a mile apart. There's also a station called New Cross, and once called New Cross Gate. Again, not a huge problem because they're about a 10 minute walk from each other.

More seriously, there's a town called Stratford-Upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was born and lived and an area of London called Stratford.They are about 200 miles apart, so if you're in Stratford (London) and someone in the street asks you where Shakespeare's house is, you know they've got a problem.

Well, yesterday, I was headed for a place called, let's say Place, when I should have been going to Placeham. I realised my error at 08:10. I had arranged to meet someone, let's call her Jane, at 08:30, for a coffee in the station's café, and we were due in the school at 09:30. Here's what happened:

1. I asked the lady in the seat opposite whether the train was going to Place or Placeham. She confirmed my worst fears. Fortunately, she knew that phone number of the National Rail Helpline (a strange thing to remember, but I am definitely not complaining!).

2. I phoned Jane with my mobile phone to tell her I was going to be late, and would let her know what my revised  arrival time would be.

3. I got off the train at the next interchange station and called the Helpline. They were really helpful and told me how to get back on track without having to go all the way back to London and, in effect, start all over again.

4. I phoned Jane with the new plan.

You'll be relieved to learn that I arrived at 08:57, well in time to get to the school because I had allowed an hour more for the journey than I really needed.

Now, I know this is not exactly nail-biting stuff (although it was for a few minutes for me at the time), and that I won't get very far if I try to sell my story to a magazine ("I knew I had to make a split-second decision: to remain on the train or get off at the next station. I knew I'd have no second chance...."), but in a way that's the point. The mobile phone is something most of us take for granted, but what if this had happened 20 years ago?

Firstly, I'd have had to get off at the next station whether I wanted to or not, in order to find a public phone booth.

Secondly, I'd have to hope that (a) there was a public phone, (b) it was working and (c) that I had the correct change or that someone was around who could change some notes for me, because as far as I am aware the National Rail Helpline is not known for its willingness to accept reverse charge calls.

Thirdly, I would have had to get hold of the phone number of the café and ask them to try and identify Jane and then pass a message on to her.

Fourthly, Jane would have had to stay in the café to receive my next update, instead of wandering into the town centre which is what she did do.

This is a simple example of how an everyday (for us) technology makes a huge difference, in ways that we don't appreciate unless you consider the alternative. Another way of approaching this sort of topic is to look at how cell phones are important in Africa, such as is outlined here.