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Flat World
What does living in a flat world mean?
Technological advances are connecting the world in ways never before possible...Political and social changes have torn down walls and created a playing field for collaboration...New business practices, such as outsourcing, insourcing and open sourcing, have transformed jobs, built a global marketplace and forever changed our economy. Thomas Friedman’s book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century, explains that the convergence of technological, political, social and business changes has created “a flat world.” Living in a flat world means that people worldwide are equally able to collaborate, communicate and compete.
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WHY SHOULD WE CARE?
"[Foreign students] are hungry to learn, and they desire to compete with us as never before in the global marketplace. It is this hunger...as well as the focus on competitiveness that is driving Asia's education explosion. It is clear we must recreate our own culture that instills within our children and young adults the importance of higher education. As Tom Friedman says in The World is Flat, when it comes to education, other countries are working to replicate the system that we have now -- and I've seen first-hand that they're succeeding. The question is, what are we going to do in the future?"
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings at the Federal Student Aid Conference, Las Vegas,
Nov. 28, 2006
Our students are going to be competing for jobs, innovations and for a high standard of living. We must do everything we can to prepare out students to compete and thrive in a flat world.
In a flat world, student learning has evolved to include accessing and processing the continually expanding body of knowledge and information with which we live. Students’ application of this exponential information will require technical and creative skills that are beyond the survival level.
For our students to thrive, we must change. Educators must take responsibility for changing and adapting educational experiences to meet the needs of each individual student. We no longer have time to spend hours debating change.
THE FUTURE IS HERE!
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WHAT CAN WE DO?
Educators can begin collaborating with others to discuss ways that we ALL can take steps to better prepare students to succeed in the future. Using the Flat Pack tools can serve as a catalyst to:
- Recognize and initiate important conversations about globalization’s implications for education
- Explore and create new answers, tools and resources
- Discover ways to take your current teaching practices to the next level
- Try a new practice that prepares students to thrive
- Stop to observe students’ world outside of school and imagine how you can bring their world into the classroom.
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