Workflow: Less Clicks Always Wins

The World is Flat came out in 2005. I read it in 2009. Sometimes it's better to wait.

Image from KaiChanVong on Flickr

I am not a World is Flat groupie, but I think that sometimes waiting can give you the freshest perspective (and this coming from the Man Who Will Sign Up For Everything).

Today I read (or listened to) The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. Looking at this book with 2009 eyes, especially after the Flat Classroom Project and Friedman's involvment with that, I can say that the book is still extremely relevant, and not outdated by... much.

I do not share Friedman's overall excitement for a world in which Bangalorians are working with dialect coaches to Americanize their voices, or adopting American names to better serve us on the phone while we dispute a credit card charge. And I think the jury's also still out on whether "Jerry" or "Sally" have given us better service when they don't totally understand an American perspective (especially after we've just picked our kids up from day care and were in 2 hours of Chicago traffic).


Work Flow: Why The Cloud Will Win
One thing I do agree on when it comes to the "flattening of the world" is work flow. This whole aggregation and integration of our Internet and how we communicate has streamlined communicational and educational processese- it has given us the tools to work with students and colleagues in ways that we've never even imagined even two years ago. It only keeps getting better. The benefits of this aggregation stands to streamline the process and work flow of teaching, so that these tools can be available to any teacher, any time. This aggregation of work flow happened just this week in pop culture. To use a real time example- we saw it with how Facebook has transformed itself to more of a Twitteresque user interface. The Cloud is demanding what they want, and it is responding.


Twitter is picking up amazing steam, and Ryan Bretag has offered a great view of how important Twitter is in the progressive world. It's the same as when eBay sellers demanded that eBay buy PayPal. The end user is the controller of the tipping point.

And don't forget, that when it comes to teaching-pedagogy and process:

Teacher = End User.

The Bottom Up vs. The Top Down
One can give the teacher a tool like, let's say, Wordpress, but if they find something better and more user-friendly in The Cloud, and they are told they can't use it because it's not hosted on the school's own servers, that disenfranchises the teaching process. The learning process will also be disenfranchised. The teacher can also be disenfranchised by technology. Why do we ever question why teachers don't adopt technology in their classrooms? Because the end user should be the one who demands the tools- not the top. It's a sad reality in many districts who have unqualified teachers. It's like trying to feed a hamburger to a newborn.

"they are trying to make the world round again"

Some districts that are adopting Moodle to create "walled gardens" have me curious. If you ask the developers, they'll tell you they're doing it because of security, because you can't trust Web 2.0, and you can't trust The Cloud. These educational systems are attempting to build invisible walls around their schools. Districts, fearing losing data, losing ownership over their data- are trying to make the world round again! While the world is getting flat, some school districts are using Moodle to try to "unflatten" it by creating their own worlds- little tiny worlds- all over the place. This- in a time where technology is allowing us to connect, share, and collaborate with any classroom in the world. You can't do that. We'll you can, but isn't that a futile exercise?

Image from aussiegall on flickr

How is this going to play out in education? Well, if the Twitter/Facebook phenomena is an indicator, the tipping point will come from teachers- from the bottom up. Users are demanding The Cloud. They won't be force fed anything. And they won't use it unless it has an aggregated flow (i.e. less clicks). While we may be in a period of vetting, the class management tools that have the best flow will ultimately win. Will it be a Moodle type tool? Or will it come from The Cloud? My guess is that the one that has the most users/vetters will win.

The world is getting flatter. And it's because the end user is making work flow seamless. Now what we need in technology education, with our teachers, is a tipping point.
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