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Title: Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns
ISBN: 0071592067
Author:
Clayton M. Christensen
Curtis W. Johnson
Michael B. Horn
Publicate Date: 2008-05-14
Publish: 2008-05-14
List Price: $32.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $18.96
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $20.77
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| Customer Review: |
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1: disrupting class
I thought this book was an academic waste of time. Like sure when we use computers things are going to be disrutive, like in other industries. This book provides little in the way of what is being done well now, and the sub disruction. They use abstract examples from other industries where they sould be focused on education.
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2: If you have children or grandchildren - you need to buy and read this book
Rocket Builders most influential author, Christensen, with his co authors has taken his theory of disruptive innovation and focused on the education sector. The authors do not lay blame but with Christensen's laser sharp analysis, peel back all the root causes of public perception and changing goal posts for education and what it has done to the institution over time. He then goes on to explain how classic disruption theory - which starts with non consumers and then slowly moves up the competency level as the incumbents are forced to retreat to higher value activities is already progressing in education. He predicts that by 2020, disruptive innovation will hit that 50% mark to turn the tables on other methods (monolithic education in this case) . They show how trying to bring the disruption inside present institutions can not succeed due to the constraints that are already in place. His statements ring true as we have seen the impact of disruption on public and private sector already.
Since his team always does their homework, you are exposed to fascinating research on the impact of verbalization on new borns up to 3 years old. They explain how that is an academic headstart any parent can give their child now. He posits that early kindergarten (after 3 yrs old) and other high priced interventions are doomed to a limited success rate. As well he quickly exposes the paucity (weak techniques and theory) of real research in education since it all to often stops short of causality ( I can certainly testify to that) . Then he explains how computer based education methods are already changing and adapting to the needs of a student centric model. He illustrates how Howard Gardners multiple modes of learning could be accomodated in the disruptive model.
Once again there is a second book within the book with copious research notes in every chapter. I am one of those professional educators who packed it in based on what I experienced as the overall futility of real change in education. Now this book has reawakened my interest in change in the education market - moving to a student centric model. If you have children or grandchildren - you need to buy and read this book. If you are in the e-learning market - it is required reading. Thank you McGraw Hill! I really liked it and it is as always an easy read with loads of detail if you want it.
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3: Interesting but rather jargon-heavy
"Disrupting Class" is a very interesting read for people interested in improving education here in the U.S. Dr. Christensen argues that the main problem with traditional schools is that they cannot provide individualized instruction that best meets each student's needs. As a home educator, I couldn't agree with him more. He sees computer-based learning as a "disruptive innovation" that will solve the problem of how to provide this type of "student-centric" learning to the masses (since not everyone can homeschool or hire a tutor for their offspring).
Dr. Christensen revisits the argument from his earlier book "The Innovator's Dilemma" that "disruptive innovations" don't initially compete directly against the current market leader's product but rather against nonconsumption. For example, in the '70's Digital had a very successful market for $200k minicomputers. Apple couldn't directly compete with DEC's minicomputers because their personal computers weren't good enough at the time to solve the problems that DEC's customers had. So Apple marketed its IIe PC as a relatively affordable toy for kids. Kids were nonconsumers so it didn't matter to them that the Apple wasn't as powerful as the existing DEC minicomputers. A few years down the road, however, improvements in PC technology rendered DEC's minicomputers obsolete.
Dr. Christensen argues that the traditional government-run education system will in the near future be "disrupted" by the innovation of computer-based learning. At first, online learning will compete against nonconsumption by offering classes in subjects where there isn't enough demand in any given school to justify offering a traditional course (such as a very advanced math one or an unusual foreign language). But eventually, He believes that the technology will improve such that computer-based learning will render the traditional model of education obsolete.
In "Disrupting Class", he postulates that demand for computer-based high school classes will follow an S-curve that will start to "flip" (significantly accelerate) in the year 2012. In the years between 2012 and 2018, Dr. Christensen projects that the share of online courses will grow from 5% to 50% of all high school courses. That timetable seems a bit ambitious to me personally, but I believe he's got the basic right idea about the growth in the demand for online classes.
The main problem I had with "Disrupting Class" is with the way it is written. It reads like a management consultant's report filled with buzzwords and jargon (not surprisingly Dr. Christensen used to work for BCG). It would've been much better had someone else gone through the authors' draft and re-written it in plain English. I found it very tiresome to have to stop constantly to figure out what exactly the authors actually meant by all their convoluted gobbledygook. Throwing buzzwords and jargon into nearly every sentence doesn't make the authors look smarter, just much less coherent!
The other thing I would've liked to have seen discussed in "Disrupting Class" is the question of whether or not it is good for children's brains for schooling to be mostly computer-based. Dr. Jane Healey wrote a very interesting book about a decade ago called "Failure to Connect" about some worrisome research findings on the negative impact of computer use on children. Has more recent research allayed or deepened those concerns? Before our society makes the shift predicted in "Disruptive Class", shouldn't we be examining this very important question?
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4: Sort of innovative, fairly disruptive, but still needs measures
Any prospective reader of this book should first read Hubbard's How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of "Intangibles" in Business (for that matter, Christensen would have written a better book if he read Hubbard, too). Christensen rightly disputes some academic measurements, but too quickly dismisses better methods.
Apart from what he could have done better on the measurement issue, he makes a passionate case for getting out of the rut education finds itself in. Some of the recommendations might strike a business person or educator as a little impractical, but I think there is an interesting opportunity in every solution he proposes. True, there is a large genre of books about the need for change in education, but few take this angle. No educator's library should be without it.
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5: Disrupting Class is a must read
Disrupting Class is a must read for educators, politicians, or anyone else who is interested in the field of education. The book provides a summary of Clayton Christensen's work on disruptive technology described in the earlier book the Innovators Dilemma. Horn, Johnson, and Christensen do an outstanding job of applying the theory of disruptive technology to the world of education. The book identifies a are large numbers of students being under served by the current model of education. This point is supported by the large numbers of students dropping out of school. The authors also state that many students are being underserved because a large number of schools do not offer a curriculum that is relevant and rigorous. This point is illustrated by the large number of virtual schools and charter school immerging in America. If you are interested in education you should read the book to see what education may look like in 20 years. If you are a politician trying to figure of how to fund an education system you need to read the book because it offers a more economical way to educate students. Or if you are a school administrator, like I am, trying to find a way to make your AYP goal you need to read the book because it will cause you to view the world in which we work a little differently. In closing, I have read numerous books on leadership, change, and specifically change in the field of education. I would place Disrupting Class in the top five of books I have read.
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