HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle

Whatever Happened to the Classroom of the Future?

Views: 947
Clayton Christensen, father of the theory of "disruptive innovation," predicted that half of high school classes would be delivered online by 2018. What went wrong?

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/reasontv
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason
Subscribe to our podcast at Apple Podcasts: https://goo.gl/az3a7a

Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.

----------------

The runaway success of Khan Academy, which launched in 2008, showed the potential of online learning to revolutionize K-12 education. It meant that a great classroom lecture could be experienced by anyone, anywhere. The same year, the legendary business consultant and academic Clayton Christensen—who passed away last week at the age of 67—co-authored Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns, applying his most famous theory to K-12 education.

When used "disruptively," software could solve the problem of students learning at different speeds. Christensen and his co-authors wanted to "flip" the structure of the classroom to make it student-centric. Students would watch online courses given by the world's best instructors. Educational apps would gamify learning, help track progress, and personalize content. Teachers could then use classroom time to help students tackle bigger, more conceptual problems.

Christensen and his co-authors predicted that by 2018, about half of high school classes would be delivered online. And they dismissed the objection that government bureaucracies and teachers unions would stand in the way of rapid change. But 12 years later, classrooms mostly look like they always have.

What went wrong?

"I would say the big lesson that I've had, is not that I'm disappointed, but just that it takes a long time to do this because you're trying to overthrow literally a century of policy and practice around our current school system," says Michael Horn, one of Christensen's co-authors and a Harvard MBA who specializes in education technology. "And all of a sudden we come along and say, 'wait a second, we're not doing it the right way.'"

Emily Raskin, a high school math teacher in Washington, D.C., says that the idea of a flipped classroom ignores the realities of student behavior.

"I think we look at the next big thing that seems great to adults, and assume that it's going to be the same thing for kids," she says. "So if you assign students to watch a video…if they are not really interested, they just kind of zone out, and they come to school the next day really believing that they have watched the video."

Were Christensen and Horn guilty, as the saying goes, of mistaking "a clear view of the future for a short distance," or were they fundamentally wrong?  The current classroom model may survive for a long time to come—at least until software gets better at approximating student-teacher interactions.

And when change does come, chances are it will look nothing like what we had imagined.

Reason is celebrating National School Choice Week. This story is part of a series that will be published over the course of the week highlighting different K-12 education options available to children and families.

Written, shot, and produced by Olivier Ballou; narrated by Nick Gillespie.
@ReasonVidsfollow
Thumbnail for Watch Elizabeth Warren Lie About Her Son's Private School Education7:26
Watch Elizabeth Warren Lie About Her Son's Private School Education
ReasonVids
958 views
Thumbnail for Steve Horwitz on Austrian Economics, Bleeding Heart Libertarians, and Family9:24
Steve Horwitz on Austrian Economics, Bleeding Heart Libertarians, and Family
ReasonVids
893 views
Thumbnail for Are You Afraid of The Dark? (Election 2014 Parody)3:52
Are You Afraid of The Dark? (Election 2014 Parody)
ReasonVids
836 views
Thumbnail for Liberal in Bed, Conservative in the Head: Sophie B. Hawkins, Breitbart, & Steele, @ Big Gay Party6:48
Liberal in Bed, Conservative in the Head: Sophie B. Hawkins, Breitbart, & Steele, @ Big Gay Party
ReasonVids
1017 views
Thumbnail for Why the Olympics Suck So Hard3:19
Why the Olympics Suck So Hard
ReasonVids
888 views
Thumbnail for Google Snake [game]1:00
Google Snake [game]
indig0sixalpha
1295 views
Thumbnail for Holy Molly that was savage1:06
Holy Molly that was savage
bestofvoatxyz
4031 views
Thumbnail for Matt Kibbe: This is the Libertarian Moment4:30
Matt Kibbe: This is the Libertarian Moment
ReasonVids
827 views
Thumbnail for Matt Ridley: The Coronavirus Pandemic Shows 'That There's No Monopoly on Wisdom'54:19
Matt Ridley: The Coronavirus Pandemic Shows 'That There's No Monopoly on Wisdom'
ReasonVids
1707 views
Thumbnail for What We Saw at the DC School Voucher Rally3:01
What We Saw at the DC School Voucher Rally
ReasonVids
950 views
Thumbnail for Israeli Dual Citizenship in US Congress is the biggest problem in US Congress1:53
Israeli Dual Citizenship in US Congress is the biggest problem in US Congress
bestofvoatxyz
760 views
Thumbnail for Reason Among the Shoe Throwers3:44
Reason Among the Shoe Throwers
ReasonVids
870 views
Thumbnail for MD-MPH World Renowned Doctor Testifies NIH ALLOWED Innocents to die to Covid on Purpose22:26
MD-MPH World Renowned Doctor Testifies NIH ALLOWED Innocents to die to Covid on Purpose
Rastafoo
1176 views
Thumbnail for She won the game0:39
She won the game
AOUisgay
480 views
Thumbnail for "Reagan Allowed Himself to Imagine a World Without The Soviet Union" Q&A with Novelist Thomas Mallon40:21
"Reagan Allowed Himself to Imagine a World Without The Soviet Union" Q&A with Novelist Thomas Mallon
ReasonVids
895 views
Thumbnail for Remy: Trigger (Michael Jackson Thriller Parody)3:07
Remy: Trigger (Michael Jackson Thriller Parody)
ReasonVids
743 views
Thumbnail for Alan Gura: The High Stakes of the DC Gun Ban Case9:07
Alan Gura: The High Stakes of the DC Gun Ban Case
ReasonVids
859 views
Thumbnail for Reason's DC Staff - Democrats vs. Free Trade3:19
Reason's DC Staff - Democrats vs. Free Trade
ReasonVids
922 views
Thumbnail for Kid likes baseball0:20
Kid likes baseball
bestofvoatxyz
496 views
Thumbnail for Stossel: Eye Test Innovators vs. Bottleneckers4:12
Stossel: Eye Test Innovators vs. Bottleneckers
ReasonVids
822 views
Thumbnail for The Pope vs. Capitalism and Human Progress: Q/A with Cato's Marian Tupy7:08
The Pope vs. Capitalism and Human Progress: Q/A with Cato's Marian Tupy
ReasonVids
733 views
Thumbnail for 3 Reasons The New Financial Regs Won't Fix Anything2:08
3 Reasons The New Financial Regs Won't Fix Anything
ReasonVids
884 views
Thumbnail for Porker of The Month (June 2010): Sen. Richard Shelby, Who Made Pigs Fly in Outer Space!1:17
Porker of The Month (June 2010): Sen. Richard Shelby, Who Made Pigs Fly in Outer Space!
ReasonVids
818 views
Thumbnail for Virginia Postrel: How to Reform Health Care Without Killing Innovation9:35
Virginia Postrel: How to Reform Health Care Without Killing Innovation
ReasonVids
846 views
Thumbnail for Victory: Fort Pierce, Fla. Food Trucks1:01
Victory: Fort Pierce, Fla. Food Trucks
IJvids
926 views

points

Permalink
Reply
libertarian, reason magazine, reason.com, reason.tv, reasontv
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle