I am most interested in the tragedy that has occurred in Haiti -- along with most of the rest of you. However, what I find incredible is how quick things occur and how "close" we have become on this planet. The tragic 7.0 earthquake occur ed in Haiti last Tuesday at 1:53 pm (PST). Within 40 minutes the first Wikipedia site and entry was up and running -- and the Internet was "telling the story." In the next 24 hours there were 800 additions or edits to that same story -- and I won't bore you with the huge number of page loads. As major electronic media outlets began to get the story and tried to report on it -- without reporters in the field -- they provided "unconfirmed reports" that were pictures provided on Twitter pics. As Americans and others were in Haiti and tried to communicate with their family and friends -- and the phones, etc. were out -- the medium of choice was Facebook. And inside 72 hours of the event, I had a Time magazine delivered via US Mail to my home that began telling the story from that perspective.
Amazing communication with incredible timeliness. The challenge for us, as we observe all of this, is to begin to think about our communication and timeliness in schools. Our business fundamentally is about communication of information and its timeliness. How do we change things so that we can provide the same type of connection to our students, constituents and the world? What is your view?
It reminds me of this quote: "The world we learned in is not the world we teach in. The world we are teaching in is not the world we are teaching for." (Forgive the grammar.)
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