Part 1: How the World Became Flat

As I was reading part 1 “How the World Became Flat” of Thomas Friedman’s book, I was nearing the end of the section and one statement greatly stood out to me. On page 252, Friedman states, “Just how flat do you want corporations to be when you factor in all your different identities? Because when you take the middleman out of business, when you totally flatten your supply chain, you also take a certain element of humanity out of life”. I started wondering, how could this statement be applied to schools and education. After thinking about it for a while, I came up with a list of questions that I’d like to share to give others to think about as well.
1. How flat will schools become?
2. If society is really “flattening” could schools “flatten” as well? Meaning, would the need for the four walls of a classroom be eliminated? Could you simply learn from an online teacher or sit in front of a screen with 500 other children and learn? If so – at what age would this begin? (To do this, children must be able to read and write right?)
3. Would teachers begin outsourcing all of their grading?
4. We see online tests at universities that give instant results – would this move down into high school and possibly to the lower grades as well?

Thus far, this book has given me amazing insights into the world of technology and how it has shaped our society. Before beginning this book, I thought of technology as computers, cell phones, the Internet and some other everyday things that I really don’t think about having such a huge impact. It’s hard to remember a time when I didn’t type up a paper for school or when I didn’t use the Internet to research for projects. Having grown up in a society that had somewhat already embraced technology, I really didn’t realize the huge impact that it had everywhere else. Who knew that one day you could be sitting with 40 different corporate executives from all over the world having a meeting that you quite possibly didn’t even have to leave your house for, or working for a call center but doing it from home.

I agree with Thomas Friedman in that, yes, to a certain extent the world is becoming flat. In some aspects, technology has greatly lessened the need for business travel and also, doing some of your work yourself. The productivity of doctors and CPA’s for example has been greatly increased by outsourcing. I believe that one day, teachers will outsource their work as well. Imagine how much time could be saved if you had your own personal grader somewhere in the world? As a teacher you would have more time for curriculum planning, spending time with your students and not to mention – sleep! But, with outsourcing of information, comes the elimination of positions in general. It all begins with outsourcing, the moves to students learning completely from a television screen or from their computer over the Internet. With this, there is the possibility of teachers above first grade being eliminated. These children who know how to read and write could sit in front of a television with many other children their age and virtually learn. There could be a proctor of some sort that manages the classroom. With budget cuts, imagine how much money that would save! Instead of paying a teachers salary, proctoring would probably be a minimum wage job, with less hours.

Now – don’t misunderstand me. I think that this would be a HORRIBLE idea. It would take the love and excitement out of learning and children would miss the vital aspects that education has to offer – socialization, a sense of community, friendships, hands on learning, the list really could go on forever. But, I’m just trying to put the book into perspective and look to the long run. If technology has made this much of an impact on our society already through large corporations and the government, which realm is it going to move through next. As a future educator, I hope that we can embrace technology and use it to our advantage, but not let it take over our existence.