The hallmark of this brave new Information Age is the interconnectedness of everything: ideas, information, and people. Relationships are key. It's no longer what you know or how much you know ... it's who you know and how to connect with them. Interactions are more immediate, fluid, and dynamic.
On an individual basis it is happening as I write. But what about on an institutional scale? Don't we eventually have to affect change in our public institutions so that they will morph from their successful Industrial Age mindset to this new way of living and working? This is the biggest challenge of making the shift: finding institutional incentive for becoming more interconnected, agile, and responsive.
Public education is a prime example. In the Industrial Age, education established itself by putting in place very deliberate policies and practices that require anyone engaging with the institution to meet established requirements, complete specified forms and tests, and move through its programs and services in prescribed, sequential steps. It is very hard to affect change in this kind of bureaucracy.
The implications go beyond the internal workings of public education 1.0. The way public schools interact with other community agencies is also slow and cumbersome. By traditional definition, the mission of public education is effective instruction. Period. Physical, mental, social and emotional health are acknowledged as peripheral variables that can aid or interfere with that mission, but they are not an explicit components of what schools do. In education 2.0, this is changing.
To successfully prepare students for their future, schools today have to be interconnected with other public institutions that can help them meet all the needs of each student ... not just intellectual growth but personal,