The times they are a changin'

Evan spent part of the evening working in Google docs on a science poster about Isaac Newton. He is in fifth grade and he has a school issued Google account - so does Spencer.  It is amazing to watch them log on and see everything that is there.  The assignments they work on in class and save to their Google drive.  Study guides posted by their teachers.  Funny notes from their friends.  Their Google drives have in essence taken the place of Trapper Keepers and loose leaf notebook paper.

Anyway, he was working on gathering information about Newton and I was doing dinner dishes and cleaning up the kitchen when he yelled to me that he couldn't get the pictures he wanted to his Google doc.  They wouldn't send.  He said he needed them over there so he could print them out.  I told him that I didn't know much about Google docs but couldn't he just right click on the picture and print it like that?  He told me that is what he was going to try next.

It hit me after he said that how amazing it is that he even knew what I meant.  "Right click and print from there" sounds like something that makes no sense, but he knew exactly what I meant.   When I was in fifth grade we had two computers in the library that we could use if we finished early with our class work.  Mainly I remember using them to play Lemonade Stand.   My kids now go to the same school and there are multiple computers in every room.  Laptops, ipads, mac books - it is mind boggling.  Spencer was carrying around a more advanced computer than those old library ones in his pocket today when he texted me after play auditions to ask if I was in the parking lot!

It is just amazing (and a little scary) how much kids these days have access to.