Back-to-school shopping can teach valuable lessons

August has barely begun. But if retailers are already stressing the importance of back-to-school shopping, who can blame them?

On Monday, 5W, a New York public relations firm, said back-to-school ranks number two among major annual shopping seasons behind Christmas and other winter holidays. But the late summer shopping bonanza could end up going the way of the pink eraser and other staples of bygone back-to-school shopping eras if social media and technology advancements have their way.

The students who will pour into schools across Lynn and the nation in the next few weeks are accustomed to the idea that their “phone” is anything but. It is a connection point to the world around them. It is a tool capable of performing all the tasks protractors, three-section spiral notebooks and No. 2 pencils once performed.

Today’s students expect to walk into classrooms equipped with Smart Boards ,and they think laptops are for elders. They are growing up in an age when more adults are working from home linked to work online.

Young workers are redefining work rules like scheduled shifts and the notion of spending the day behind a desk or in one location. Colleges are touting their online courses and giving students options to telecommute to a virtual classroom. With these trends underway, how long will it take for cash-strapped schools to face a shake-up at the hands of the same techno-revolutionaries who are redefining the workplace and the college experience?