When the Internet Goes Down...

Do you dread the "no internet" screen?

Last week in our school district we had the internet go down 3 separate times in 3 consecutive days.  To some this was a disaster of utmost proportions but to others it didn't effect their daily lessons one bit and may actually have enhanced conversations and relationships. As I lived the 'no internet' days I jotted down a few reflections. Below, in no certain order, is pro's and con's of when the internet goes down:

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What Happens in Schools When the Internet Goes Down

Enhancements/Positive

• Staff and students start to have conversations about ‘other’ stuff like “what did we do before internet” and “did you have internet when you were a kid teacher?”
• Things get cleaned more like offices, lockers and desks as the tasks we are used to doing online take a backseat to looking around your space and noticing you are a slob.
• You exercise more as you get messages to peers and co-workers via walking over to them versus email and text.
• Students and staff who have pressing due dates begin to have conversations about “I should use my time more wisely”.
• Staff and students learn where the IT/Computer guy's office is in person.
• Classes take impromptu field trips outside as their online nature scavenger hunt goes retro.
• You find the snacks in the teacher's lounge as your traipse around the building on your conference period (maybe a negative?!?).​
• You might have one less set of assignments to do/grade since it was 100% web based.
• You are able to tell kids about the days of old when we thought Y2K was going to bring us all to the current state/chaos they are experiencing with no internet (plus no electricity).​

Challenges/Negative

• ​Communication while more personal, takes much longer as you have to hike all over the building/hallways.
• Your productivity wanes when you realize that making data charts with Excel/Google Sheets is infinitely harder without access to your state databases.
• Collaboration on common products is much harder without tools like Google Apps or Dropbox.
• As you stare at your device you can't remember how you "used to do _____" before you did it online.  30 minutes pass and still no clue.
• Attendance might wane as paper copies of rosters are tough to find.
• You eat much more as you fill the time once used during your conference period or between classes to check your Twitter or Facebook.
• You realize when calling a student down to the office you have to thumb through those giant binders of student info sheets that you printed off on day one of school.  You pray for no emergencies!
• You become hyper-vigilant to the little bars at the top or bottom of your device, checking 3 times a minute, to see if you have service again.
• You realize promoting all the good work you were seeing during those hours it was down is harder to share without your school social media account.

How about where you work?  What happens when the internet goes down at your school/workplace?  Is it good?  Bad?  A wash?  Comment below!