Disruptive Innovation in Education

Disruptive Innovation in Education: 

How would the marketplace (parents & students) respond if a school could demonstrate that a unique combination of culture and instructional methodology significantly improved student achievement, performance, and experience?

• Disruptive Innovation -  An innovation that improves a product or service in ways that the market does not esxpect, typically first by designing for a different set of consumers in the new market and later by lowering prices in the existing market.
• Sustaining Innovation - evolves existing products or services with better value, allowing the firms within to compete against each other's sustaining improvements.  These innovations can be transformational or revolutionary or evolutionary.
• Disruptive innovations change entire markets.
• Disruptive technology represents both opportunities and threats.
• Good schools are usually aware of innovation, but their internal environment does not allow them to pursue these innovations with they first arise for various reasons.  
• Existing businesses are often reluctant to take advantage of disruptive innovations since it would involved competing with their existing approach. Often established businesses will flee "upmarket" trying to make up the revenues and margins lost to the disruption rising from below.  They often eventually fail. 

Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave 1995 by Clayton Christensen & Joseph Bower.

Example of disruptive innovation - Floppy Disk Drive Market
1981 8" floppy disk drives used in mini computers replaced by 5.25" disks for desktop computers, then replaced by 3.5" floppy drives, then replaced by zip drives, CD's, USB flash drives, now cloud computing.
 
Educational examples of disruptive technology:
textbooks, paperbacks vs. E-Books
Xerox copies vs. electronic files (pdf)
notebook paper vs. online notes/Powerpoint

The Academic Visioning Committee has been formed as a logical outgrowth from the Strategic Planning process.  The committee’s objectives are:

• Identify innovative & strategic opportunities regarding the academic future of the institution
• Collaborate with stakeholders
• Promote creative thinking
• Set the standard rather than wait and see, be a leader not a follower
• Accept the reality that the future is going to change given the tools available to teachers and learners

Mission Fundamentals - Must be retained

•  Commitment to academic excellence &  rigorous curriculum
•  Focus on student achievement & development of work ethic
• Prepares students for collegiate & professional success
• Institutional commitment to the Essential Elements
• Pursues excellence in all its endeavors
• Celebrates the value and dignity of each person 
• Nurtures the development of the whole person
• Proclaims and witnesses to its Catholic identity
• Evangelizes youth within the mission of the Church
• Fosters and invigorates a community of faith 
• Teacher as value-added : more than presentation of information & knowledge 
• Faith and character formation 
• Challenging and affirming 
• Interactive 
• Inspires students to achieve beyond their expectations
• Characteristics of a professional educator at Brother Rice High School

• 1.       Commitment to the mission of Catholic education
  2.       Willingness to serve as a Christian role model
  3.       Loves students unconditionally
  4.       Works in the best interests of the students
  5.       Respects the dignity of every student
  6.       Is optimistic about students and their future
  7.       Maintains high expectations within a rigorous curriculum
  8.       Challenges students to  achieve excellence in everything they do
  9.       Teaches students to be accountable
  10.     Is affirming and encouraging
  11.     Is passionate and enthusiastic
  12.     Communicates effectively
  13.     Is a lifelong learner
  14.     Is willing to innovate for the benefit of student achievement
  15.     Demonstrates professional competency in their subject matter

Old School - Discontinued

• Primary methodology is teachers talk, students listen 
• Teacher is active, student is passive
•  Location impacts resource availability
•  Learning defined by knowledge & comprehension, memorization
•  Minimal interactivity
•  Paper and pen/pencil based
•  Resources scarce
• Confrontational discipline
• Minimal technology 

New School - Must be added 

•   21st century Learning & Instruction: Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration
•  Integration of technology (communication & computing) into the learning experience
• Regularly utilizes the Internet to communicate student information: Grades, homework, schedule, etc. 
• Promotes the use of technology for asynchronous learning – Research, Writing, Online practice tests, video & podcast lectures, etc.
• 
  Supports the transition to digital books & resources 
• Dramatically reduces the use of paper and significantly increases the use of electronic resources (i.e. pdf files)
  
•  Adoption of 21^st century learning & instructional methodology
• Daily class activities are designed to be engaging and interactive. A teacher-centered learning environment in which lecture is the primary methodology is no longer acceptable.
• Seeks professional development opportunities to enhance their understanding of 21 st century learning techniques
  
   

1Micro – What is the 21^st century model of instruction?

·         21^st century attributes:

o   Collaboration

o   Critical thinking

o   Creation

o   Communication

o   Computer integration

•  Will a new model of instruction improve student achievement, increase student motivation, promote higher enrollment, be leading or bleeding edge?
•  What are the essential methodologies that a professional 21st century educator dedicated to excellence and student achievement should utilize on a day to day basis?
•  Will the combination of a professional instructor who is a role model in matters of character and faith be the primary value-added role of the teacher, or will the teacher’s role change?

·         One idea – the “Flipped” classroom

o   Pre-Class:

• Teacher presentation of information available online
• Student readings available online or electronically
• Interactive practice tests available online

o   Class

•   Interactive
• Engaged
• Activity-based
• Problem-solving
• Critical thinking
• Collaborative
• Creative

o   Post-Class

•  Communication
•  Blogging
• Emails
• Research
• Pace supplement
• Video
• Reading
• Online practice
• Peer support/tutoring

o   Assessment

• Testing for mastery
• Individual or collective achievement of learning objectives (pace).      

Macro – what will the school of the future look like?

• Online or hybrid?
• One to one with technology?
• 45 minutes daily on each subject or?
• Only “time” for six or seven courses?
• Master teacher for everyone in one subject with teachers for daily meetings?
• Will everyone be on the same pace? Will a semester define the awarding of a credit, or will the demonstration of mastery earn credits?
• Will 24 credits be the minimum after four years?
•  Will the future financial model represent the same basics of the current era - 80% of cost is labor, 22-1 student teacher ratio.
• How will the school of the future deliver instructional excellence to its students?

o   Will class sizes increase or decrease?

• The primary driver of our business/financial model is teacher-student ratio.  If we adopt the college model of a 250 person lecture class, I am certain that we could drive our costs down and pay fewer teachers much better,  but I am not convinced that such an impersonal setting would benefit any of our students.  Nevertheless, are there ways for us to improve our “productivity” and reduce costs given the tools that are available? 

o   Will a teacher’s full-time job responsibilities remain the same in the future?  Will five classes of roughly 22 students constitute the primary learning entity in the school, or are there alternatives?  Could we have a master teacher produce learning sessions for larger class sizes and have smaller work/discussion groups with teacher aides similar to the college model?  Every study indicates that the most important element in secondary education is the adult leading the learning in the classroom – how do we enhance or promote this going forward? 

  

• Imagine the following “flipped classroom” scenario – what if every lecture/presentation by the teacher was available on video and that daily “homework” was reading and watching the videos at home while the class sessions were dedicated to interactive activities in which problem-solving, critical thinking, collaborative opportunities for creation and communication on computing devices – is there a way that this could be done to alter the current five periods a day of 22 kids full-time assignment that would improve learning or assessment?  One of the challenges of proper assessment is that if you don’t know your students, how do you properly assess them, especially if higher order thinking is included in the process?

o   Will the school year be longer or shorter? What about the school day?  Will a student attend 6-7 classes with 22 other students every day where a teacher is leading the class, or will there be an alternative/hybrid that produces higher student achievement and changes the current business model of instruction?

o   Would we offer online classes of shorter duration during the year or perhaps during the summer to supplement learning or push everyone into calculus by their senior year or to enable students to move on to college faster?

o   Will one teacher or a team of teachers instruct students in an individual subject?

o   Will the class be held daily in a particular location or online or both?

o   Will the mastery of the material at an individual pace take precedence or replace the current “collective pace” that places students on a four year, 24 credit track regardless of the speed with which they learn?

o   Will the social aspect of learning remain an essential aspect of the secondary learning process?  

o   Can a faith-based institution adjust the 22-1 ratio of teacher to student upwards without losing the benefit of our unique value add?

o   Can we afford to wait and watch, or is it imperative that we think and plan and act accordingly?

§  What are the risks of being on the “bleeding edge”?

Whatever path we choose, will we do so collectively as a conscious choice or will we continue to point ourselves in a collective direction but allow our individual faculty members the individual and daily choices that have historically defined the educational process?  Do we need the pioneers to guide the rest of us, or do we consciously and deliberately make a school-wide choice and “bet the farm” on an approach that is on the leading edge?