Back to school

Do you still get that back to school feeling in early September? As the temperature cools and the days draw in, I always have that slightly anxious feeling that a new term is about to begin. It's the last month of our financial year so new plans do have to be made and we will soon be entering the 2009/10 year. All those numbers have to be built up once again starting with a clean sheet, just as we all started with a new exercise book all those years ago. Best writing for the first week then it was back to the old scrawl with doodles in the margin. I wonder if children still cover their books using old wallpaper? Probably not. Maybe they don't even have books to write in at all now.

I feel lucky to work in an industry that uses technology so much although I do reminisce about the old days when designers used magic markers and drawing boards instead of computers. The possibilities for visual communication now are vast but somehow the restrictions imposed by old methods led to a level of creativity that is seldom seen today. Oh well, change has to be embraced if people and businesses are to keep up with the demands of the times and whilst we can always draw on the best the past had to offer, and use it when appropriate, it is exciting to speculate about the resources of the future and how we will be able to use them to improve what we do.

I studied sociology in the late 70s. We were told that the emerging technologies would mean increased leisure time for everyone within 20 years and that we should begin to plan how to use this free time. It hasn't quite worked out like that has it! We should remember this when teaching students today - the work/life model that we have now will be the same in another 20 years unless human habits change and we break the mould set by past generations. In the meantime, where's my new exercise book?