Tech Thoughts this Week

Technology just saved my wife and me some time. She had created a letter on my laptop last night while sitting in front of tv. She forgot it this a.m., called, and I emailed as an attachment. If I wasn't teaching a tech class right now, I wouldn't have thought twice about it. Once upon a time, she would have had to drive home to get the letter, or I would have had to get out of my pajamas and take it to her. On the other hand, if it had been paper instead of digital, she probably would have left it on the table last night and not forgotten it this a.m.

I wrote a grant with a colleague in Morganton this week. He wrote in his office and I in mine. I emailed my parts as attachments and he inserted. Now here's where current technologies and old habits (culture?) collide. The foundation to whom we are submitting the grant won't accept digital copies or faxes. Paper only. So a letter from my Dean had to be overnight-mailed for $14.95 instead of scanned and sent free as email attachment. The grant itself will be overnight-mailed today for another $14.95. However, money talks, doesn't it?

Here's the double-edged sword. We only decided a week ago to write the grant. Given multiple responsibilities, I let most of my part of the work go until late Tuesday night and and early Wednesday morning. Then I emailed it instantly to my collaborator. Once upon a time, roughly a decade ago, I would have had to get right to my writing in order to mail it to my collaborator well ahead of time so he could add to his draft. So, while technology made it easy to collaborate, it also exacerbated a proclivity for procrastination. Say that 3 times fast.