A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

So it's that time of season again where things get a little more hectic and we start to travel. This week we traveled to Seattle and packed our bags and checked in to our flight. Sitting in our first grungy airport of the season in Long Beach I looked to see where my team was sitting. It was turning around and seeing two rows of those uncomfortable airport chairs that face each other I saw our whole team facing each other. Well not exactly "facing" each other but maybe I should say interfacing with each other. Picture it, 15 young women sitting across from each other all dressed a like and each with their own laptop, ipod, and headphones in. I could not help but look and shake my head and think about our final project. It made me also think about how useful would online classes be for my team and other teams across the country. Athletes can end up missing a considerable amount of days of class, but what if they were able to attend classes while on the road. Or have access to lectures to be watched at the hotel during allotted study hall hours. Maybe this would help out with some teams graduation rates that have been highlighted in many NCAA reports.

Or would help other student athletes be less stigmatized by the "dumb jock" scenario. There can be times when other students may see student athletes getting out of class, but in the future this may not be the case. this moment in time was also highlighted by one of the airline workers at the counter making a comment about how she could not believe how this generation is and how this is not like how it was back in her day. it was also interesting to note that one of the players was reading an actual book and I was laughing in my head how funny she looked as she was nodding off and trying to stay awake. It then made me think how what if that same book or lesson related to the book was online, would she have been able to keep her eyes open?

Another interesting caveat is that while typing this I leaned over and asked one of my players what she thinks of online education. She said that she thinks that it would be hard to manage the idea of cheating and honesty. Which is also an interesting concern of the wide world web in general and how much information is out there. It is hard enough managing cheating and other academic dishonesty concerns within the walls of the university. How then do we combat that in the open world of cyber space?

I would love to hear what you see in this image since they do say a picture is worth a thousand words. I would also like to say i did not have them pose this way just so I could write this blog;)