The Day After 1984 - A Short Jaunt in an Unplugged School

Well, our '84 on 8/4 Unplugged Day has come and gone - my original ideas and plans are mentioned in previous posts here and here.  Personally, I took the Unplugged Challenge and extended it to a full 24 hours of no technology that was not available back in 1984.  Yesterday was an interesting day for me as a result, with a few moments of frustration, disconnectedness, and the occasional lapse into boredom.  As I progressed through the day, I made some notes (on an old notepad with ink and paper!) about what I observed of myself, the faculty and the students, as follows:

1. Conducted a walkthrough of the entire HS - many classes were working with textbooks and working on paper (much more than usually can be seen)
2. Starting the day, there were only a handful of students who volunteered and registered to formally take on the Unplugged Challenge, but a bunch more signed up in the morning (much to my relief)
3. Some faculty members resorted to asking for TimeWarp posters during the day, as they could not fully plan all of their classes to be without technology in the end.  This led to my major transgression of the day, as I had to briefly go online to email the poster to these faculty members.  Funnily enough, I didn't know about these requests as I was unplugged all day, until someone asked me if I had seen their email!
4. It was hard for IB Diploma teachers to be truly unplugged with their classes, due to the nature of their courses, due to the time of year (the last day for seniors is very soon), and due to how their classwork is structured in a 1:1 laptop school.
5. The Spirit Day Dress-up (like it's 1984) component of the day was fun and students participated in their typical small but enthusiastic numbers.  In terms of developing school spirit, it was well worth the effort.  Here's some of student posers . . . hey, isn't that Madonna?!?
   
6. Our usual HS Assembly took on an 80's flavour with one of the student bands playing some 80's hard rock . . . nice touch!
7. Most of the faculty/staff had an interesting relationship with the Unplugged Challenge - they planned their lessons to be without technology as best as they could for the day (sending attendance down to the office on paper, bringing in a tv and vcr with an old tape, using an overhead projector, working from paper and textbooks) but very few actually took the challenge themselves (I only know of one other teacher out of 40+ other than myself who personally did the challenge).
8. I collected some student feedback and reflections the day after, which garnered some interesting quotes, such as:

• "I learnt that I'm not that addicted as I believe myself to be at times, and that I actually enjoy a break from technology at least in classes, where you are not forced to sit behind a screen, but I still have a habit of reaching for my phone or computer to check messages for what's going on."
• "The most difficult part was that whenever I was bored, I felt the urge to take out my phone and start playing on it."
• "Yes [I would do the challenge].  I think it was interesting to see how I would function and to see how drastically different life is without all of the [technology] things that we have available. I think it would be an eye-opening experience for my friends as well. "

Personally, I went 24 hours without using any tech over the course of a full day of school.  It was an interesting experience, being the tech person in the school who is disconnected for the entire day.  It made for a pretty big backlog of emails and jobs to do the next day, but it was worth it to support the student body and go through the same experience.  The experience confirmed for me that my role in the school is heavily dependent on technology in general, and on email in particular for communication - no surprises there.  The biggest surprise for me though, was the realization of just how bored I got at different times during the day, as I could not read any articles online, check how my hockey team did last night, or see what's happening with friends, family and colleagues on Facebook or LinkedIn.  This last bit got me thinking that it is somewhat different for me here as an expat living/working overseas, compared to if I was still back home in Canada - the digital links to your own personal world are stretched over greater distances, connect you with a group of people spread around the world in different time zones, and become more important to you as they are the means of maintaining your important relationships with people, places and things which are distant or remote.

Have you ever gone Unplugged for a day?  What were your takeaways or observations?  Was it a mandatory experience in your school, or voluntary?  I wonder if making a mandatory unplugged event would change the dynamic, as those who do not want to participate simply won't and will find ways around any attempts at enforcing a blackout - what has been your experience?