Exploring Digital & Global Education Discovering Work and Learning Strategies for the New Millennium

Education in a Digital, Global Environment

We are extremely pleased and very excited to be a part of the EDGE Project, a college-wide strategic planning process in which all of you are invited to participate. EDGE is part of the SACS re-accreditation, but it is far far more than that. It is an opportunity to step back from the day-to-day business of our jobs and reflect on ourselves, our students, and the rapid changes taking place in our community and the world. It is obvious that the world is moving into the digital age and from there into the information age, and the pace of change is almost overwhelming. James Canton of the Institute for Global Futures recently stated that it took 35 years for the telephone to reach 10 million users, but only 10 years for personal computers to reach that same number of users and less than 5 years for the Internet. To manage the rapidly increasing rate of change, our institution, too, must change. But institutions, by their natures and by design, are ponderously slow to change. What we must do is find a way to more nimbly make changes and respond to new conditions without losing the benefits of our status as an institution.

As a part of this process we'll call on noted futurists and experts to help us look into the future. Most importantly, however, we will call upon you -- the faculty, staff and administration at SPJC -- to help mold this institution into one of which our students and our community will be proud. Your help is needed as we try to define the student of the future and determine how to best meet his or her needs as a learner, worker, and vital and active community member. Toward that end, we will ask academic and other departments within the college to form committees to figure out how their units will most likely be affected by local and global changes. These committees will then spend several more months defining an action plan incorporating the best responses to the expected changes. Finally, these committees will recommend changes in policy, procedures, and processes to facilitate the actions they determine to be necessary.

There are a couple of milestones to note. The first is the written report to SACS, which will be submitted in August of 1999. The second is the site visit in the spring of 2000. However, these milestones are almost incidental. We believe EDGE - an acronym for Education in a Digital, Global Environment - is a vital process for SPJC - one that must accomplish far more than merely maintain our accreditation. It is an opportunity to plan our future, and to make sure we have the future that we want and that we can be proud of.

We hope all of you share our excitement as we begin this process, and look forward to working with you during the next two years.