In dealing with setting up accounts, ways of communicating and how people now want to interact, it's become clear that there is a new schema. In the past, we deal with locations. Now we deal with individuals. This is a profound difference and leads to some interesting effects. Let's take a look at the impact of this change. First though, let's look at the historical shift.
History
In the past, everyone had a home phone. Originally, phone numbers were developed based upon where the switching building was located. Thus, my first phone number was DUnkirk6-1772 (386-1772 – the first two letters of the exchange translated into numbers). Talk about location based. Your phone number was a reflection of where you were. Growing up, you called someone's "house". You asked if "they" were home. When the phone rang, it could be for anyone who lived in the house. If you wanted to reach someone at work, there was a different number. You either called someone's home or work. Eventually, answering machines were invented and if no one was home to answer, you could leave a message. Cell phones were invented. Now you didn't need to be in one place, rather you could answer the phone wherever you were. In the beginning, a cell phone was an additional phone. Over the past few years, home phones have been disappearing entirely. Many people no longer have a home phone. Rather, the cell phone is the only phone. No longer did someone need to know if you were at home or work, they simply called you. The phone is no longer a shared family or community based utility, rather it is a device for one. Thus, when the phone "rings", it is clear who it for. If one moves from one house to another, there is no need to change a phone number. The same phone number works. The idea of a phone has completely changed. It is now a way to directly reach someone. The system for assigning phone numbers has changed as well. Originally, large cities had the area codes closest to the number one. That made it easier for the switch board operators. Now, there is no advantage or reason for an area code to be one versus zero or nine.
Identity is another big issue. Going far enough back, people were from somewhere. More recently, addresses were used for verification. In order to know for sure that someone was who they said they were, a house address was required. Now, more and more, in order to prove who you are, we use email addresses. Again, a shift from a physical location to an individual.
Impact on Education
So how does this impact education. Let's look at the example of how parents and the community contact school. In the past, an address was an address and didn't change. Communication is more often done through email now. In a person based system, this means that you must know the person that you want to contact. For example, you can't just contact the Principal of the school, you need to know the name of the individual who is the principal. May not seem like a big deal, but it can be. Principals change much more frequently now that in days past (another blog post coming on that). Also, there are times when the principal isn't known (say when one has accepted a new position and the replacement hasn't been publicly named yet).
How about how we handle documents? In the past, there was a big filing cabinet that held the important papers of the school. (Actually, there were lots of them). In the principal's office was probably a filing cabinet filled with the history of the school. Past schedules. Pictures. Schedules. Important events. (Not that this was a perfect system. In fact, there are lots of problems with a location based system. Not as many things could be saved. Many items could only be possessed by one person. Access was limited. Theft/loss was a huge issue). Now that documents are person based, if the principal of building A moves to another district, all of those documents can easily be lost. If that account is deleted, all of those documents are destroyed. Additionally, how do we sort out personal documents from school documents? There may be lots of documents that are specific to that individual and are worthless to the school. However, those personal document can be intertwined with crucial documents for understanding and running the school.
Future
So what does the future hold? We are rapidly moving toward a more personalized and person-based system. This is not to say it is good or bad. Rather, sometimes we need to think and plan for these changes. There will be unintended consequences and pleasant surprises. As we move forward, we'll need to consider how we are setting up systems and make conscientious choices about why we make the decisions that we do.
