It's a small world! Surrounded by flying objects!

This afternoon I am busy putting together study notes on communication technology for my senior students.

It suddenly occurred to me that there are loads of little (or not so little) satellites in geosynchronous orbit around the world with the job of making it possible for me to use international direct dial (IDD) to phone home.

I phone home a lot!

Since I've been teaching abroad I've noticed a lot of changes in communication technology. When I first started 10 years ago, I didn't know anything about email. I wrote and sent postcards (real ones, not electronic!) and letters. Then I moved onto sending my parents faxes. I am so impatient I couldn't wait for 3 weeks for the letters to get home to NZ.

In my recent interview series, Overseas Teacher Talk, quite a number of the international teachers I interviewed mentioned that a drawback to living overseas is the distance you are from your family. But with all the options for communication there are around today, you can be as close or as far as you like! I probably talk to my family more when I'm living abroad than I did when I was living in NZ. And I make a real effort to stay in touch with my friends too.

I love email, but when I travel, I still send postcards.