Also have hardcopy

This was a fine, thought-provoking book, less on what ought to be done to improve education in America and more on what is going to happen to improve it. Published in 2008, it's already been long enough to see that some things the authors predicted to happen by now have not.

But...it's also been long enough to see that they will happen, just not quite as quickly as the authors predicted. If more people read this book, we might stop floundering around wasting money and resources and be better able to focus our abilities, so that we may begin getting real improvement in our educational system sooner. :) ( )

An important work. Theoretical treatment of the current state of education and the way forward, viewed through the lens of his academic theories regarding disruptive innovation. ( )

I agree with some ideas, but not all. Too much technical writing from the viewpoint of disruptive business theory - there were pages and even whole chapters that I skipped after seeing yet another theoretical passage. That said, I thought the idea of students hiring school (or not) to do the job of get success and have fun with friends was inspired - I now keep it in mind as I plan my teaching. Also, being more student-centric is definitely a good idea, and getting a few (emphasis on few) practical ideas to use technology to do that was appreciated. ( )

Highly recommend _Disrupting Class_ for teachers, new parents, entrepreneurs in every vertical (not just education), trainers, and UX designers. Just read it. ( )

Many of the trends were difficult for me to accept. After taking a step back and removing the personal issue, I found the book to be truthful and it lead me to rethink many of my personal opinions. ( )

Thought provoking treatise on the future of technology in education ( )

A proposed makeover of how technology can be used to transform education. Sure to be talked about widely.

I read the book expecting more based on the reviews. It makes very good points about customizing instruction based on student needs and the need to "disrupt" the current system. Maybe it is just me, but I didn't read anything that profound. Most of what they said about any educator in the classroom could have told them, but the problem is the "how" (how do you disrupt huge monolithic school systems that have to deal with Ed Code and teachers unions etc. And I have to say that I felt the book was a little light on the "how' part. I suppose that is understandable since the authors aren't k-12 educators and that is one of good aspects of the book. They offer a different perspective. I think of the reasons I found it hard to really grab onto the meat of the book is that I found the opening vignettes for each chapter very simplistic and almost silly. I felt they took away from the power of the subsequent chapter's argument rather than adding to it. I also am not sure that I completely buy their idea that technology will offer the answer to differentiated instruction. They completely miss the part about student motivation. Online courses geared to students abilities are great when the student is motivated, but they didn't talk much about what they will use to "hook" the student. ( )

This book is really quite hopeless and disappointing. It offers nothing new nor disruptive - well, at least nothing we already did not know. Yes - online learning will be dominant... we knew that maybe five years ago? ( )

Most of us in education are pretty resistant to having people in the business world tell us how to do things. I'm not taking sides on this one, but it's a professional bias. I've learned that the business world actually does have some things we in education could learn. Since everyone went to school, everyone feels they are an expert in the field and as such are qualified to offer their recommendations. One often hears the lament that schools need to be run like a business. Of course, one could argue that schools are actually far more successful than businesses, but that's another story...Like I said, I see both sides of this issue.

So when I picked up Clayton Christensen's "Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns", I felt all my old biases coming back to me. He's a professor at Harvard Business School and I figured he'd drag out all the old saws we educators hear. But the book was a bit of surprise to me and I found myself agreeing with much of what Christensen had to say. Essentially, the book argues that new technologies ("disruptive technologies") are about to pose a serious threat to traditional education. With the current emphasis on differentiated instruction and individual learning styles, technology-based, individualized instruction is going to subtly, but rapidly, overtake traditional education. I've heard Faith Popcorn raise the same issue at the National Association of Independent Schools' conference, but she was not nearly as convincingly.

These new technologies are developing primarily in the form of online courses offered outside of the traditional school structure. This is an important point for Christensen and he draws a parallel to how home computing developed in the shadow of mainframe computers and eventually gutted that industry. Right now, the online education field is meeting a completely unmet need, serving primarily kids who cannot receive certain types of instruction in their own schools. As this "industry" develops, it's going to be able to provide kids with far more customized instruction to meet kids' different learning styles. He predicts that by around 2012 or so, that around 50% of seat time in classes will be through online courses. I think that's a bit too quick, but I don't necessarily dispute the general point.

He points out that the current system is inherently incapable of adopting this revolution precisely because it is successful. At best, the system will attempt to cram new technologies into the existing paradigm. He points out industries that have tried to do this and failed and he also points to some educational efforts with the same results. None of this is actually an assault on traditional education per se. He argues that it is doing a very good job on its own terms. The problem is that these disruptive technologies are creating a paradigm shift that will make whatever improvements we've made obsolete.

He's not predicting the end of schools as such, but he is arguing that schools are going to look very different in the future. He foresees charter schools and pilot schools becoming more prominent and he argues that we will need to recognize that the idea of comprehensive schools will go by the wayside. We're going to need to customize schools to meet all kinds of learners in the future. He also sees that what teachers do will also change pretty dramatically. He uses that hackneyed line of us becoming "guides on the side" rather than the "sage on the stage". I hate the line, but see his point.

The end of the book seems to drift off topic a bit and has a fairly extensive critique of current educational research, but for the most part, Christensen's argumentation is crisp and concise. His conclusions are definitely controversial and will undoubtedly upset some. I don't know that I agree with him 100%, but I do think he raises some important issues that we as educators need to look into and address head on. ( )