A post by Stephen Denning which highlighted a talk by Rachel Botsman pointedly captured my interest. Rachel speaks about the changing face of consumerism. Her focus is on how social networking and other collaborative internet sites are moving our world from ownership to user-ship. She speaks of an emerging and even more connected society.
There is a major paradigm shift happening, yet the American educational system remains principally in the industrial age. Most school districts ban the use of electronic devices, yet, today’s students are connected to one another by that very medium. Rather than accept and deal with the reality of the new world, schools react by setting stringent rules that don’t allow for flexibility. Schools still retain the culture that they hold the information and students need to go to school to get it. In reality, information is now everywhere and schools need to be places where students learn new and creative ways to use that information.
The trend is changing in our school systems, but the mentality of our system isn’t changing fast enough to effectively serve our students. More rules are not the answer. Schools must fully embrace emerging collaborative society in order to prepare students for the new world.
