Comments on: The Shape of Things to Come

By: Dennis Szuba

Dennis Szuba — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 12:20:06 +0000

Thank you for giving this inspiring article. See mine!

By: Sebastian (a lady)

Sebastian (a lady) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:05:13 +0000

Funny, I was just reading this article last night. I found it interesting that in the examples he gives, disruptive technology starts out by filling a need that the previous “better” tech hadn’t been filling. T
inny transister radios don’t replace bigger, quality tabletop radios, but they provide radios to teenagers who didn’t have them before. Likewise, computer based learning makes headway not against a great classroom teacher, but in situations where a classroom is impractical or too expensive.
So Rosetta Stone may not be superior to a native German speaker with years of experience teaching beginning students, but it is vastly superior to no responsive, interactive language input at all.
I did find myself wondering if homeschooling itself might be a form of disruptive technology. Not if you look at it from the point of view of replacing students in public school classrooms. But what about all the families who were non-consumers of more individualized *private* school? Does homeschooling fill this niche?
I’m looking forward to getting my hands on Disrupting Class and reading more on the concept.

By: Matthew Ladner

Matthew Ladner — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:15:44 +0000

That is very interesting Stephen. I had wondered as well if technology might not be used to help keep financially struggling inner city Catholic schools afloat. It sounds like the Jesuits are ahead of the curve.

By: Stephen J. Haessler

Stephen J. Haessler — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:07:48 +0000

Excellent article, thanks! Another piece of supportive evidence may be seen in the form of the Jesuit Virtual Learning Academy to be launched this fall. The Academy will offer online courses to all 51 Jesuit high schools around the country. Right now, these are elective courses. However, I see no reason why required, core courses could not also be offered in the near future.

Increasingly, telecommunications is becoming a substitute good for transportation. With gasoline prices on the rise, teleconferencing becomes a reasonable alternative. And as bandwith limitations fall (thanks gamers!) and fiber optics become more common, new methods of pedagogical community building emerge that make e-learning curriculum and instruction more effective.

Diane Ravitch wrote in the 150th anniversary issue of the Economist magazine some years ago that scarcity of educational resources will become less and less constraining, and that in the near future, anyone could learn anything anywhere at anytime. That future appears to be here now. One challenge will be to structure incentives in ways that encourage all income groups to embrace the future of education.

By: matthewladner

matthewladner — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:45:34 +0000

Lisa-

That is very interesting. Does the program include value-added assessment of student test scores? I saw a mixed classroom/online school that was doing value added on an ongoing basis, and it seemed very impressive.

By: Lisa Snell

Lisa Snell — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:22:54 +0000

I’m a big fan of Christensen, and as anecdotal evidence, the California Virtual Academy (which I serve as a board member) has grown from around 200 students to 10,000 in California in five years. We have now expanded to high school and enrollment is exploding. This virtual charter school, which uses K-12′s online school, curriculum, and school management system has an excellent academic track record. We have developed very extensive individualized special education services, and unlike most California schools we have students who learn to read and catch up to grade level and then exit the special education designation.

Our teachers act as managers of families and may teach multiple grade levels. (A virtual one room school house.) California law requires one teacher for 25 students. CAVA teachers are more like instructional consultants. Some families need lots of help and other need minimal attention. The pay is very competitive and we offer large performance bonuses up to 10 percent of a teacher’s salary against performance benchmarks including student performance, parent and student satisfaction, and student retention. We also pay a 10 percent premium for special education and certain high school single subject credentials.