Are You Ready For Glass-nost?

Every once in a while when I'm presenting I say something interesting. (Hard to believe, I know, but it happens.) I was recently presenting and said something I hadn't planned on saying, but after saying it, I think it might be worth thinking about a bit more.

I was talking about the changes in how we access information, from books to text-based search to voice recognition search to image/location based search to Wolfram Alpha search, etc. And then I said something along the lines of:

Are you ready for all your students to enter your classroom wearing Google Glass?

There are lots of layers to that question, most of which I wasn't thinking of when I said it, but I think it's worth asking yourself - and your colleagues - some variation of that question. Are you ready for Google Glass-nost, the increased openness and transparency of a connected world? When you are endlessly debating CCSS, or your curriculum, or whether to go with a paper-based planner for your students, are you really thinking about a Glass-enabled world? Are you ready for your students to have a heads-up display with instant access to all the world's knowledge - and the ability to instantly connect with most of the world's people?

And, yes, I'm aware that not everyone is excited about the ramifications of Google Glass, and I think there are legitimate concerns. But that doesn't change the fact that we're basically on the verge of having the Star Trek Communicator, yet our schools are laser-focused on achieving a relatively fixed set of knowledge.

So, try this thought experiment. Pretend that next fall all of your students show up the first day of school with Google Glass. Are you ready?