Overcoming Barriers

to Transformation

Bette Manchester and Chris Dede

Big Ideas, June 2010

Challenges

Outdated assessments drive teaching practices

Multiple expectations from policymakers often derail educators from sustaining a clear focus on learning

State and country leader distribute tools, but take no responsibility for policies around learning

Leadership at school, state, federal level:Knowledge of systemic change, learning goals

Common issues across the world

Distributed Education

The formal educational system extends beyond the school: in time, in space, and in people

Parent tutors, informal-educator coaches, and community mentors complement teachers

Schools of education prepare and certify teachers, tutors, coaches, and mentors

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U.S. 2010 Educational Tech Plan

1. Learning2. Assessment 3. Teaching4. Infrastructure5. Productivity

http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010

Many Mobile Devices…beyond 1-1

1976 2010

Core Principles ofProfessional Development

Teachers teach as they were taught The important issue is not

technology usage, but changes in content, pedagogy, assessment, and learning outside of school

Continuous peer learning is the best strategy for long-term improvement

Professional Development:

Communities of “Unlearning” Developing fluency in using

emerging interactive media Complementing presentational

instructionwith collaborative inquiry-based learning

Unlearning almost unconscious assumptions and beliefs and values about the nature of teaching, learning, and schooling

“Imprinted” with the industrial-era school

“Sea Change”

Evolution, Transformation, or Disruption

In Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” Ariel sings to Ferdinand:Full fathom five thy father lies;Of his bones are coral made;Those are pearls that were his eyes:Nothing of him that doth fadeBut doth suffer a sea-changeInto something rich and strange.

Disruptive Innovation Theory

Why Successful Companies Go Out of Business Sustaining innovations are incremental

improvementsin a product

Disruptive innovations offer a new product initially notas effective as what is currently sold, but immediately meeting a specialized need (alternative is non-consumption) and potentially better in the long-run

Over time, the disruptive product drives outthe standard product (e.g., mini-computers)

Transformation via Disruption

Disrupting Class Christensen, Horn, & Johnson, 2008

My Altered Version Schooling is the sustaining innovation

(based on industrial model) Customization is the disruptive

innovation(e.g., individual human tutors and the 2-sigma effect)

Customization in online learning is the initial product that competes against non-consumption

Inclusive, customized learning – based on much more distributed “teaching” – is the innovationthat forces schooling to adapt