Postmodern organizations are just beginning to emerge at the dawn of the 21st century. Their characteristics are yet to develop, but there are some early signs about how they might evolve. Speed, flexibility, mobility, and rapid re-organization are expected to be the hallmarks of such organizations. The output of postmodern organizations are expected to be less standard, as manufacturers and service providers begin to use information technology to individualize and personalize their products. Nature of teaching in K-12, and higher education institutions has remained premodern in the sense which was described above.
Teachers are craft women and men who work within the structure of a modern bureaucracy.
The education establishment, while has had to adopt many modern practices in its administrative functions to provide uniform services to millions of students, has kept its academic operation premodern. Instructors, while have to offer standard curriculum and instructional services to their students, do not have the support of a differentiated staff of instructional designers, media producers, subject matter experts, computer programmers, and evaluators. Hence, there is always a gap between what the establishment sets as a standard and teachers can provide due lack of adequate support. Distance teaching, implemented properly, is a radical departure from such practice. In institutions such as the British Open University, course teams support academic units.