Which Emoticon Means "I Have to Go Pee?"

This is one of my favorite web comics - Doghouse Diaries - that is published three days a week. A little off beat, but usually dead on the mark when it comes to pointing out the foibles of the modern day human.

It brought to mind an event that happened the other night during an online work session with the members of my group in the Instructional Design class. I happened to be at school Monday night - it's Homecoming week here, meaning I have duties all week long that keep me here later than usual. I decided to do my online chats at school. While working with my group, at about 10:00 PM, I lost connection to the internet.

Wanna guess which school district does its computer upgrades and network fixes during the evening starting at, oh say, 10:00 PM? Mind you not every night - apparently just those nights when I need a connection.

I lost it. I frantically texted one of my classmates Cathy O (read her blog Cathy O's Observations) to let her know what had happened and that I wasn't blowing off the rest of the class. I so wanted to have a web cam of me clicking away at anything that would allow me back online - of course my computer was OFFLINE already so the web cam would have been pointless, but hopefully you get what I mean. I didn't want to be seen as a slacker just because my connection let me down. Thankfully, I have a very understanding group. We'll be at it again tonight - but I'll be at home, safe and sound with my own connection.

I don't really feel like chatting online is better than in person. I don't. I'm a social person, like the good folks in my Instructional Technology Cohort. I prefer the face-to-face chatting. Online education, though, requires it, and most of the time it's a good thing. Most of the time, the internet connection is working. Most of the time, the speed of the chat very close to real-time communication. Most of the time, when someone asks a question, you get to see their question before you see someone else's reply to that question.

Most of the time. Nothing's perfect.

Referring back to the comic, it makes me wonder how many people wander away from the chat to do their biological business, take a phone call, or get a beer (or another beer in some cases). Yes, I have done it, but I'm usually stressed out about it in case someone calls me out on a specific question, so I'm away for just a few minutes. 

What about side-chats, tweeting a chat, or just flat-out doing other things while chatting? Is that multitasking, or is it distracting? I know how I feel about students in my classes using their phones - which is about the same thing as we online students sidechatting or tweeting during class. We just feel like it's justifiable because we are Instructional Technology students. We're supposed to be doing this, right?

BTW, while I was writing this, I had Tweetdeck, Gmail and Wikipedia open and operating. Nobody emailed or tweeted, and I didn't search anything, but by God I was ready!