Yesterday I was browsing through the latest issue of Company Director (Vol 23, No.9, 2007), having been enticed to pick up the journal by the heading ” Meetings in Cyberspace”. This article examines the reasons behind the slow adoption of virtual board meetings in the corporate world – and posits that this will change with the the Telepresence solution (The Next Step in Global Meetings) offered by Cisco, Hewlett-Packard or Polycom.

It’s been almost ten years since the Corporations Law was changed to allow virtual meetings and electronic communications, but most people still prefer face-to-face meetings.

Now this is sounding rather similar to the scenario amongst teachers – albeit a different setting – the same adoption lag in the use of newer technologies. The article covers a deal of useful and relevant issues related to companies and the operations of Boards across distances and timezones. Their issues of security etc make our efforts in the education sector seem like child’s play.

However, remembering that one of our key goals in education is to prepare our kids to be productive working members of society I was positively entranced by the last paragraph of the article about what a Board Director should be capable of – which I want to share with you.

Read it, and substitute the word teacher for board member, and customers and suppliers with students and families…you’ll get my drift.

This is the era of YouTube and seven million blogs, where everyone can be their own media commentator…..This is real. This is the fast-moving aspect of how everybody lives their lives. If Board members are not integrated into this…if they don’t understand and don’t run their lives that way…then there’s a risk question you’ve got to ask – do these people really understand your customers and suppliers and the environment in which they operate? If they sit up and say ‘that’s all technology – I never use that stuff’, I’d be asking ‘ are you really suited to being a Board member?.

Cisco TelePresence… Just for Fun!