Disrupting Education: Flattening the Ivory Tower
There is a phenomenal new book out that brilliantly captures how the Web will reshape education in the next 6 years. Christensen, Horn, and Johnson outline how “computer-based learning” provides several advantages over learning in a physical classroom. These advantages include: increased curriculum (more AP classes, broader spectrum of courses), greater ability to tailor learning to the individual student, increased access for students (eg., rural areas, overseas), and dramatically decreased costs.
They define, “Disruptive innovations tend to be simpler and more affordable than existing products. This allows them to take root in simple, undemanding applications within a new market or arena of competition.” Another key component of a disruptive innovation is that it provides a product or service to people that currently do not have access to a product or service (eg., homeschoolers, lifelong learners).
These guys are no slouches. They are some of the brightest minds applying the innovation model to the educational sphere. Straight out of Harvard, they have provided significant innosight into how we can collaborate and solve the educational crisis we currently face.
You can read Terry Anderson’s summary here and an overview article here.
On a personal note, this book is particularly comforting to me because it captures much of what our team has been working on for the last year and a half. One of the challenges of being an entrepreneur is that there isn’t much external validation pre-launch. This book provides a bit of encouragement that we are indeed on the right track.
