Looks at education thru the lens of business innovation | Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will...

Fascinating look at disruptive innovation in education | Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns | Clayton Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson, ...

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	• Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns Clayton Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson, ... McGraw-Hill, 2008 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good wheat - Too much chaff

Clayton Christensen et al bring their strengths as experts in business evolution to the field of education reform- particularly at the K-12 levels. Their analysis of class="textlinks">how online education will gain market share to approximately one-half within the next ten years is quite convincing. Christensen's models of Disruptive Innovation seem particularly relevant to the development of new education enterprises and systems.

But then they go beyond this expertise to make sweeping statements about the conduct of research in education, the lack of success of charter schools, and theories of multiple intelligence.

Their presentation on categories and stages of research is something I never heard of in my 20 years of research as a physicist and for good reason: They don't seem relevant to real research issues. In their discussions about education research on what makes a school perform well they ignore the seminal work of Chubb & Moe in their important book, "Politics, Markets & America's Schools (1990)," which specifically addressed that question.

Judging by what they include and what they omit, one gets the impression of a leftward political slant. Very little mention is made of the harm done by teachers' unions, school administrators, education professors, and politicians in protecting their respective turfs against reform.

Nothing is said about vouchers and other forms of competition.

Lastly, Moe & Chubb recently collaborated (again) on a book about the major role online instruction will play in the future, "Liberating Learning." Their book also refers to this book by Christensen et al but they only cite it for its specific discussions about Disruptive Innovation and thus not inconsistent with my comments in this review that only a portion of the book has significant merit.

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Looks at education thru the lens of business innovation

Clayton Christensen and colleagues point the class="textlinks">way toward innovation in education by applying lessons learned through studying innovation in business.

Christensen, author of The Innovator's Dilemma, calls for philanthropies and foundations to fund the kind of research that helps us learn how different people learn, how to identify those differences, and how different students can best educate themselves and each other.

Future teachers will need skills to work one-on-one with different types of learners as they study in a student-centric way, Christensen says. Graduate schools of education must train researchers to go beyond doing descriptive research that seeks average tendencies. Instead, they should study the anomalies and outliers, where the richest insight often is found.

Some major messages in this book:
1. Few education reforms have addressed the root cause of students' inability to learn.
2. Previous studies of innovation showed that direct attacks on existing systems do not lead to effective disruptive innovation. Instead, innovation must go around and underneath the system.
3. We know that all children learn differently, but the way schooling is currently arranged discourages educating children in customized ways. We need a modular system.
4. Emerging online user networks offer a model for circumventing the education system and creating a new, modular system that facilitates customization. Decentralized user networks democratize development and purchase decisions to the end users in the system--in this case students, parents, and teachers.

Online courses offer the kind of customized, student-centric instruction that students most need, Christensen and colleagues argue. They propose that each school designate one person whose sole job is to implement online courses.

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Fascinating look at disruptive innovation in education

The very real value of this useful and, at times, pleasantly surprising book comes from the class="textlinks">way the authors apply their expertise in innovation to the field of education. By approaching public education's crisis with new eyes - and conceptualizing education as a product or service like any other - Clayton M. Christensen (The Innovator's Dilemma), Michael B. Horn and Curtis W. Johnson provide insights that escape the tired loops of argument that often define discussions about public education. These writers' obvious willingness to look in new directions for learning innovation is matched by their genuine concern for everyone involved in education. However, they do seem a bit idealistic, as they focus so strongly on the pedagogical and conceptual aspects of education that they seem to skim over other concerns, like logistics and budgets. The authors acknowledge the legal monopoly governing public education without really addressing the social weight and inertia of such a monopoly. In fact, they seem to believe that positive disruption is almost inevitable. getAbstract recommends this thoughtful book to anyone interested in social change and education, and - not tangentially - in how new technologies affect societies.

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The book "Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns"

Christensen and two colleagues present an interesting argument for the need for a radical (disruptive) change in education. They then argue cogently for that change being online courses delivered over the internet allowing teachers to do more one on one tutoring, less group lecture. As a high school teacher of math and physics for 15 years, I find their view of great value.

Christensen is a professor at the Harvard Business School who developed a theory of disruptive change to explain what happens in business when new technology disrupts a stable market (e.g., the personal computer and its impact on mid-size and mainframe computers). I was skeptical that a business school professor would get anything right about education. In fact he gets a lot right: education does need a paradigm shift to accommodate diminishing numbers of teachers and diminishing resource, and to accommodate the long discussed little addressed differences among learners and class="textlinks">how to accommodate it in classes of 20 or more using lecture as the principal teaching method. The notion that courses delivered over the internet could be built to accommodate individual differences in learning style, and could free teachers from administrative tasks to allow them to tutor one on one, is intriguing. Christensen does NOT do the heavy lifting of building such courses, he only motivates those who are considering that heavy lifting. But he does provide the rationale for being willing to do the heavy lifting to build excellent courses delivered on the internet, and to invest the billions needed to give each student access to a computer in multiple classrooms.

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Important Read

A lot of timely, thought-provoking info about cutting edge educational practices. Extremely worth reading,by educators and parents alike.

Selected as one of the "Best Books on Innovation, 2008" by BusinessWeek magazine

Named the "Best Human-Capital Book of 2008" by Strategy + Business magazine

A crash course in the business of learning-from the bestselling author of The Innovator's Dilemma and The Innovator's Solution?

"Provocatively titled, Disrupting Class is just what America's K-12 education system needs--a well thought-through proposal for using technology to better serve students and bring our schools into the 21st Century. Unlike so many education 'reforms,' this is not small-bore stuff. For that reason alone, it's likely to be resisted by defenders of the status quo, even though it's necessary and right for our kids.
We owe it to them to make sure this book isn't merely a terrific read; it must become a blueprint for educational transformation."
--Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education

?A brilliant teacher, Christensen brings clarity to a muddled and chaotic world of education.?
--Jim Collins, bestselling author of Good to Great

According to recent studies in neuroscience, the way we learn doesn't always match up with the way we are taught. If we hope to stay competitive-academically, economically, and technologically-we need to rethink our understanding of intelligence, reevaluate our educational system, and reinvigorate our commitment to learning. In other words, we need ?disruptive innovation.?

Now, in his long-awaited new book, Clayton M. Christensen and coauthors Michael B. Horn and Curtis W. Johnson take one of the most important issues of our time-education-and apply Christensen's now-famous theories of ?disruptive? change using a wide range of real-life examples. Whether you're a school administrator, government official, business leader, parent, teacher, or entrepreneur, you'll discover surprising new ideas, outside-the-box strategies, and straight-A success stories.

You'll learn how

Customized learning will help many more students succeed in school Student-centric classrooms will increase the demand for new technology Computers must be disruptively deployed to every student Disruptive innovation can circumvent roadblocks that have prevented other attempts at school reform We can compete in the global classroom-and get ahead in the global market

Filled with fascinating case studies, scientific findings, and unprecedented insights on how innovation must be managed, Disrupting Class will open your eyes to new possibilities, unlock hidden potential, and get you to think differently. Professor Christensen and his coauthors provide a bold new lesson in innovation that will help you make the grade for years to come.

The future is now. Class is in session.

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