A fundamental shift in thought

I was in New Orleans for the SACS conference in December. The speaker for the final general session was Russel L. Honoré, the Commander responsible for military relief efforts after hurricane Katrina.

He spoke about preparedness, and he sounded a warning about the huge business and cultural shift from “just in case” to “just in time”. It was a compelling thought.

I remember studying Walmart in business classes long ago. The use of technology to reduce warehousing needs and improve efficiency in distribution and inventory control was considered a breakthrough. We now have degrees in supply chain management, devoted to keeping just enough getting to the right place at the right time.

Learning is also affected by this shift. We value less and less the knowledge we carry around in our heads. Instead, we look for ways to search more efficiently, have mobile devices that can acquire the information we need when we need it, and we focus on process more than content.

While I am fully engaged in technology as a learning tool, a social tool, and a research tool, I have to admit to some sadness. I watched The Egyptian last night (1954). Great movie of love, betrayal, gorgeous sets and costumes, set in a fascinating time period. I love history and proceded to fill my husband in on the background–Ankhenaten, Nefertiti, Horemheb, and of course “King Tut” (who wasn’t in the movie, but was certainly related to the historical story that served as the source). And I realized that of every person I know, maybe 3 would have been able to engage in the conversation without immediate access to wikipedia!

I conclude that we need to carry around a certain amount in our brains, because those factoids and concepts are what allow us to jump to interesting and novel connections. Maybe that is why I still believe in a “liberal education”. If a student has been exposed, and actually learns about, a wide variety of fields, he or she is equipped to take the best of what we had (within the bounds of personal interpretation) and use it as a springboard for  new ideas.

So now, I need to think (as many people are probably already thinking) about when “just in case” is more appropriate than “just in time”. And where I need to insist on building a knowledge foundation that can be used to connect to a dynamic virtual construction. A serious curriculum challenge!