Workplace of the Future
I will be very interesting in reading Malcolm Gladwell’s upcoming book, focused on the workplaces of the future.
I don’t like to think of us as educators as making future workers (there is something far more lofty when thinking about preparing our students for their future lives as democratic citizens), but I’ve made the most impact when I’ve talked about why we need to change in the field, when I’ve tied it to future work.
So, David Warlick always talks about the workplace of the future and says we don’t know much about it. He does a nifty trick where he shows you a home office and makes everything disappear. But I do think we know some, and I’m sure Gladwell has some good insight.
We might also talk about the school of the future. I know less about that, but to say, we have a hard time changing that. There are many reasons, I’m sure; here are a few I believe in:
- schools are built for use in multi-year increments (25-50-75 years)
- new schools are designed around what schools have been to the current administrators and architects
- schools are built on the cheap
- we don’t train teachers by in large to teach in different spaces
I mean, schools just have:
- lockers
- gyms
- cafeterias
- band rooms
- classrooms with rows of desks, and sage platforms
I’ve seen some new schools that are certainly impressive, but they aren’t typical. Many of note are experimental charter schools. Here are some things off the top of my head I’d like to see, should I be building a school in the next couple of years:
- unique spaces, not a collection of similar classrooms
- adequate space for storing and charging computing devices
- adequate power in learning spaces
- spaces students can build in
And what else, while I’m dreaming? Why not make it easy for students to communicate privately with teachers (e-mail, chat), deliver great bandwidth with big fat network pipes, and accept only students with good attitudes?
Okay, I am dreaming. But we ought to be thinking about what would make a better educational environment. There’s always room for improvement. And it’s not a bad idea to look ahead to a future world of work.