1. EDTECH 554 (FA10)
Susan Ferdon
Session Four: VoiceThread Commentary on “Disrupting
Class”
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link: http://voicethread.com/share/608990
In this Edutopia article, Disrupting Class, the authors
present a picture of education in which online learning is
a disruptive innovation – one that fills a need when the
alternative is nothing at all. They say that cramming
computers into the existing model of education is not an
effective approach to education reform. This idea of
disruptive innovation really peaked my interest so I got
ahold of the book and found that the ideas that
interested me were explained in greater detail and the
ideas that set off alarm bells – like the changing role of
the teacher – were not as alarming when presented in
the context of change over time.

2. In the book, the authors credit education for doing an
admirable job of adjusting to the changing role of public
schooling and likened it to being able to rebuild an
airplane in mid-flight. But in order to effect real education
reform, the authors contend that we need to transition
from a standardized, one-size-fits-none approach, to
modularization, in which learning is individualized to
student needs and learning styles. Online learning is the
key to modularization and is predicted to reach a critical
point in two thousand fourteen when online courses have
a 25% market share in high schools. Once that happens,
this innovative disruption will quickly grow to the point
that it becomes the norm, rather than the exception.
Just as online learning disrupts the monolithic approach,
the changing role of the teacher disrupts the tutoring
model of teaching. Where only a small percentage of the
population nowadays is able to engage a personal tutor,
more and more students will be able to benefit from
individual attention. In this model of innovative
disruption, the role of the teacher becomes much like
that of teachers in the one-room schoolhouse. The big
challenge, presented in the book, is to try to fit these

3. changes into the No Child Left Behind standardization
that schools are forced to function in. I see disruptive
innovation as a tremendous opportunity and, according
to the model, it’s not something that will happen
overnight. I think the key will be whether or not the
educational system will be allowed to move away from
standardization and toward modularlization.