With the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina upon us, it’s clear that schools throughout the country need to be better prepared for that next disaster, whatever it may be.

In fact, Education Week just published an article about a report by the Southern Education Foundation. The report says the federal government’s response to challenges faced by storm-tossed K12 and higher ed institutions along the Gulf Coast was a “massive failure.” Fortunately, the report also says that it’s not too late to change our course.

So where do we start? Of course, we should be able to look to our federal, state, and local governments for assistance. However, I think it’s important that academia and business work together to develop solutions as well. Case in point: The Hurricane Education Leadership Program (HELP) Team, a consortium of businesses, associations, and nonprofits organized by Intel.

HELP is urging educators to get disaster recovery plans ready NOW! And one key area of any plan should be learning continuity. Recently, we held a webinar about disaster planning, organized by HELP, with guest speaker HELP Team Project Manager Melinda Dinin of Intel. She shared what HELP and its partners, like Elluminate, are doing to develop a 21st Century learning model that can be easily replicated by other states and countries.

Click here to access the recorded session. You’ll also want to check out this related eSchool News article.

We must all, as Melinda Dinin says, start thinking about what we need do today to prepare for the inevitable and to address issues of how we will provide continued learnining. People cannot affort to wait. And, of course, she’s right.

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication