Industries are being disrupted by people and organizations
that are utilizing technology to reframe the traditional business role. Disrupters study an industry in an effort to
determine its most essential components.
By doing this, disrupters do not approach the problem with a technology
in mind. Rather, they concentrate their
time on doing the heavy mental lifting required to analyze the functions and
outputs of an industry. I recently
watched a 60 Minutes episode that discussed how the banking industry is in the
process of being totally disrupted. Just
think about how bank branches are becoming obsolete and you can get a picture
of the disruption occurring in this sector.
In the piece, they talked about how the banking industry has become “unbundled”. New companies are creating services that
target these specific pieces of the old banking industry; oftentimes with more
access and efficiency for consumers. I
think it was a fascinating piece. Of
course the question that came to my mind after watching the show was this: How
can we unbundle schooling and is that even a good idea? In many cases the disruption that occurs
because of unbundling is already occurring.
Educators better pay close attention to this trend!
Schooling encompasses what must people think about when they
think of K-12 education. People think of
school busses transporting kids to a building where learning happens. Schooling is a broader term than education or
learning and reflects the industry that dominates the K-12 sphere. So, if schooling is unbundled, what would it
look like? I will offer you my opinion
on unbundling schooling. This is a work
in progress and there are many ideas that need to be examined more closely.
I believe “schooling” can be broken into three distinct
categories. These categories can also be
broken into their component parts. The
three categories that make up schooling are: education, social, and cultural
transfer.
EDUCATION: Education is the intellectual growth that (hopefully) occurs in
our schools. Education is the stated
purpose of schooling; it is also the area in which the government and most
reformers concentrate their efforts. I
believe there are four component parts of education: Learners, learning, instruction,
mandates (and its cousin…assessment). For
all of the curriculum directors out there, you will notice that I did not name
curriculum as one of the component parts.
I did this for two reasons.
First, the curriculum space has been significantly disrupted
already. The choices for schools to
chose curricular options have increased significantly over the past ten
years. This has created (in my opinion) a
marketplace where an aware education leader can purchase almost any curricular
option they can envision. Their job is
simply to assure the curricular option serves the purpose for their school and
learners. Second, in today’s
environment, curriculum is just not as important as its sibling, instruction. Great instruction is paramount as we move
into the future of unbundled school options.
Instruction is changing constantly as we grapple with how increase
student engagement in a face to face, blended and virtual learning
environment. Instruction is the area
where education leaders need to concentrate their efforts in a fluid learning
environment. Finally, learning is the
basis of education. If a learner does
not learn, then there is no education.
Creating meaningful learning environments for learners that reflect our
current century is the number one challenge in education. One final note, we assume that everything we do is geared toward the learner...but does that really happen in "schooling"? It seems to me that schooling is an adult oriented institution. In order to significantly change schooling (and education) we must become radically learner centered. This will place the priority on the learner and their learning.
Social: Over
the course of my career I have heard so many people say, “The school Board can
pass a multi million-dollar budget with no questions, but change the football coach
and you will fill your auditorium with concerned citizens!” My answer to that is, “Good”. While I was superintendent, the most festive
time for our community revolved around Friday night football games. This was an opportunity for the community to
come together and celebrate the youngsters of their community (those in the
band and cheerleaders included). Why is
this a bad thing? “Social” can be broken
into at least five component parts: sports, clubs, band, chorus,
cafeteria. Maybe education leaders and schools
should spend more of their time worrying about the social aspect of their
students. Why is this important? Think about how most people in communities
connect for opportunities, whether the opportunities are for jobs or social
climbing. Most jobs do not require a high
school transcript; people receive opportunities through word of mouth and
people that they know. When I was a
superintendent in Ridgway I asked a successful businessman what academic skills
are essential for his new hires. I
thought that algebra might be his answer.
His answer was that he likes to hire farmers and ex-military because
when a machine breaks down at two in the
morning those two people will not wait for a boss to show up later in the
morning, they will try to figure out a solution now. No mention of academic credentials. Just previous work experience and word of
mouth. I believe this happens more than education
reformers would like to admit. I believe
the reality is that the social aspect of schooling needs to be embraced and developed.
Cultural Transfer: Cultural transfer consists of the hidden
(and not so hidden) cultural norms that get passed from one generation to the
next. Schools serve as a transfer agent
for these norms. The component parts of
this category are (but not limited to): Structure of society, obedience, conformity,
patriotism, individualism, entrepreneurship…
I can name more (and you can too!) but those serve as a good start. With the eroding of community structures in
many places, the schools have filled an important role in inculcating students in
how to act in society. This is an almost
completely ignored aspect of schooling and needs to have more attention paid to
it.
I will spend
time in the next blogs discussing ideas about how each one of these areas can
become “disrupted”,
or how they are starting to be disrupted already.
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