Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Your Thoughts on Disrupting Class

This may not be what you have in mind when reading the title! In our first Pedagogical Practices, we discussed the topic: Meeting Standards in a Student-Centered Classroom. During the 2008 K-12 Online Conference Scott McLeod narrated a presentation on disruptive innovation and its impact on education. Scott is the Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE). I want you to watch the embedded video describing disruptive innovation and comment on the class blog as to how your teaching job will likely change over the next few years. The original link to the website is http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=344 where you can download the video and see other reader comments. My own thoughts about this topic are included in my personal blog at: http://medwards61.blogspot.com/2009/08/disrupting-class.html



Link on dotsub

14 comments:

Anne said...

This video gave me a lot to think about. I like the idea of a personalized and individual education plan for children. I teach resource and a customized program for me students would be an ideal. Students could have specialized reading programs to help meet their individual needs. This would be great for students who do not qualify for spcial education but still require extra help in their learning.

Thanks!
Anne Peterson

Thomas Cronin said...

This was an interesting video. I was not really sure where he was going in the beginning but he was able to make it all come together. Amazing how by 2019, 50%will be online courses. Schools and districts that do not get onboard with this "shift" in education are really going to be falling behind and will not meeting the needs of the 21st century learner. Dr. Woodward sees this happening and she is getting our teachers and students ready for this change with our additional computers and more magnet programs at the high school level. We must adapt and realize that our old ways must change. I think that learning will be more meaningful to kids when they have more of a vested interest in what they are learning. The neatest thing about online courses is that kids can work at their own pace and do the learning at a pace that is of benefit to them.
Interesting video!
Tom Cronin

Kim Goff said...

I agree with Thomas, at the beginning of the video, I wasn't exactly sure about the direction in which the video was heading. As the video proceeded, I realized how my job could be changed due to disruptive innovation (21st Century Technology). In school systems today, you hear so much about "personalizing learning" for all types students. This video brought to my attention that school districts are sustaining personalized learning innovations through:online classes, homeschooling, alternative schooling,and charter schools. This video also predicts by the year 2019 that a disruptive innovation will occur, stating that 50 percent of classes will be online. Where will this leave classroom teachers? Will teaching positions be done away with? Will we record our teaching and have it shown through the internet to a class? I think technology is a great thing, but, I do believe it is taking over jobs and that all professions not only teachers should be prepared for what may happen in the 21st century.

Patrick said...

My thoughts on this video were at first wondering what this had to do with me and then realizing about half way through the video that my job will shift. I see teaching becoming a job as more of a facilitator, than we already are. Teachers will be going around the room while students work on individual based programs on the computer or listen to individual based programs on their iPod. Kids will be working at their own pace, while me as a teacher will be just helping those students and facilitating the learning that they are doing. I see it as more of a shift at the high school level, because that is where students are starting to think about their future and looking at more individualized type of programs. However, I see it also shifting to the middle school to help those struggling learners, who struggle with the regular classroom setup.

Thanks!
Patrick Smith

Merri said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Merri said...

I had several thoughts during this presentation.
1 - I sort of feel like a dinosaur and am a little intimidated about the idea of having to "catch up" to the technological level of 5th graders (will I be smarter than a 5th grader?).
2 - The definition of "disruptive innovations" and the "natural laws" of disruptive innovation were explained in a way that made perfect sense to me even though I had never thought about it before. When I was in high school, we had rotary phones (with party lines when I was in elementary school--how many people now even know what those were?, manual typewriters, no calculators, and certainly no computers in schools or homes. In fact, one of the popular business courses was "punch cards" which I think had something to do with programming the room-sized computers. In my 20s,I thought I would "have it made" if I could own a selectric typewriter with the changeable balls!
3 - The idea that this is all going to sneak up on most school organizations if they continue with their current models (and thank goodness District 1 sees what's coming and will be more prepared that many other districts). I liked when the presenter said not to wait until the innovations are "good enough" but just start with the underserved student groups and get going and when he said the 21st century is here--isn't it time we started preparing students for it?
4 - Finally, this was all brought home to me when I saw this ad on Yahoo: "Is your child happy in school? If not there is a K-12 online school..."

This gave me lots to think about! Thanks,
Merri Lewis

Merri said...

Sorry to have been so long-winded!
Merri

mnichols said...

I have felt like our profession was moving in this direction for quite some time...I just don't know which direction to turn to help facilitate the personalized learning. I agree 100% with Mike's original post that our district, on the surface, appears to be adjusting to the disruptive innovation ahead of time, but it seems like "lip service" now. I think we all KNOW what needs to be done, we just aren't sure how to get there.

It is a little intimidating to hear that by 2019 what seems to be new and different now, will be common place. We DO have to get moving on this, but first many of our colleagues must buy into the fact that the way we learned in school is not the same way our students of today learn.
As an example of how technology-savvy these students are....I recently received my ELMO document camera after receiving 20 minutes of training. I was very pleased with myself as I plugged it in, hooked it up to the laptop, and downloaded the program to get it to run. The next day, I began class by using my new gadget to show the bellringer. Well, as fate would have it, things didn't go as I planned. However, my students saw what was happening and literally "coached" me through the process of getting the ELMO to work for me!!!

I found the video to be very interesting and right on target. I do think those of us enrolled in this class have "bought into" the idea of personalized learning. We just need to spread the word to our colleagues. Thank you.
Margaret Nichols

Kate Bailey said...

Disruptive Innovations... Interesting ponderings for a Sunday evening. It is amazing how initially we resist change and then it continually taps us on our consciousness until we enmbrace it. I remember doing it with computers and cell phones. Can on-line classes be next? It is reassuring to know that our superintendent is on the cutting edge of 21st century education. It should prove exciting teaching into the next decade and beyond.

Theresa said...

I loved the comment at the end about schools needing a greater sense of urgency.I can see how RTI at our school two years ago was the new way to help students. Many fought the program. Just this week a 5th grade teacher talked about a student who was in resouce,then mainstreamed, given Tier I and II help and now is, "getting it", on grade level and succeeding. RTI is all about personalized learning.

How will my job as an educator change? Preparation is one of the keys. I will have to have a plan for "tiers" in my classes so there is successful learning for all.

edie said...

This video really made me start brainstorming the future classroom. Students all sit behind a computer instead of just a desk. No more textbooks? Hum… I would love this.
With that thought in mind, I would definitely want to improve my instructional techniques using technology.
I was also thought about the words “Disruptive Interruption” having such a negative connotation to it that I wasn’t sure what the video was going to be about. I questioned how it could be disruptive if it was an improvement? How about changing it to “Improvement Interruption?” I guess it depends how you look at it I guess, through the markets eyes or life.

edie said...

This video really made me start brainstorming the future classroom. Students all sit behind a computer instead of just a desk. No more textbooks? Hum… I would love this.
With that thought in mind, I would definitely want to improve my instructional techniques using technology.
I was also thought about the words “Disruptive Interruption” having such a negative connotation to it that I wasn’t sure what the video was going to be about. I questioned how it could be disruptive if it was an improvement? How about changing it to “Improvement Interruption?” I guess it depends how you look at it I guess, through the markets eyes or life.

Leigh Anne said...

I thought like others at the beginning of video: how does this really affect me and my classroom? But as the video continued, I realized it was already affecting me...and will only become more prevelant in my teaching strategies. The technology of texting and cellphones is already a device that some see as disruptive, whereas other educators in our district have suggested we let them use their texting to communicate with each other about the learning. But as a teacher, how do I monitor that? Next year, I will have one laptop per three students in my classroom. This is innovative, but at the beginning it will also a disruption. As an educator, I am going to have to re-evaluate all my lessons and determine how to best utilize those laptops. I think in the long run, this is going to instill more interest from the students, but it does create a new role for the teacher in the classroom!
Thanks,
Leigh Anne Cogdill

Scott McLeod said...

It's been fun reading these comments. Thanks for the kind words about the video. Glad it sparked some discussion!

FYI, if you haven't yet seen them, you also may be interested in this:

http://bit.ly/5dPUkQ

or this:

http://bit.ly/83ycyB