This morning I read a statistic from the Harvard Business Journal which stated that in a few years 1.4 billion people around the world will be working from home. That got me thinking about whether we are truly preparing our students for this type of work. Our educational structure was formed as a response to the Industrial Revolution, not the Digital Revolution. These 1.4 billion workers are regularly collaborating with colleagues using virtual tools. The also must learn to manage both time and digital distractions in new ways for improved productivity, taking responsibility for these tasks when there is no manager physically watching over their work.
What we need to provide our students to prepare them for this work role that many will have? Here are a few ideas:
- Regular collaboration with others using digital tools such as Google Docs, Skype, and other communication tools.
- Collaborate in a variety of different manners. For instance, collaboration with classroom peers, with other school classes, with other schools, with those with similar interests and aptitudes, etc.
- Create intentional discussions with students about the similarities and differences between the traditional workplace and working from home or within virtual environments.
- Work with students to plan for dealing with digital distractions, listing those potential distractions, as well as identifying specific management strategies.
- Build classroom activities to incorporate shared virtual tools whenever possible.
