by Clayton Christenson in his book, “Disrupting Class”: that there are innovations that either sustain the current product or service – called sustaining innovations – or disruptive innovations that bring about real change. In April 2009 at the Milken Institute Global Conference a panel


discussion titled “Transforming Technologies” convened with fa- cilitator Michael Horn, co-author of “Disrupting Class.” He started off with an objection to the title. He shared with the panel and the audience that although technologies play a key role in transforming education, “It is not the only thing.” Michael advanced a new title to the panel: “Transforming Innovations.” In “Disrupting Class” (2008) the authors argue that online learn-


ing will become a “transforming and disruptive innovation.” Dis- ruptive innovations are defined as those that replace “expensive, complicated and inaccessible products or services with much less expensive, simpler and more convenient alternatives.” They believe that “online learning is a disruptive force that can


transform the factory-like structure of American schools. Out of the transformation, a new model will emerge that is highly personal- ized, student-centric and more productive, providing better results at the same or lower cost.”


Online instructional design David V. Loertscher, a professor of school of library and infor-


mation science at San Jose State University, made this observation about blended learning: “Blended learning is indeed a potential major shift in education, but there is a major problem with the in- structional designs used online. If one is to read a chapter, view a lecture, do a worksheet, and perhaps participate in an online discus- sion, then the dropout rate and what is learned will be small. High Think models that are collaborative in nature, constructivist, and join personal expertise with collaborative intelligence need to form the basis of online instructional designs. Online can’t be deadly bor- ing like the face-to-face classroom can be. It has to be more engag- ing, more powerful, creative, collaborative, real, and more project oriented. Then it becomes disruptive.” Innovations and technology offer new and fresh ways to improve


upon the work of educating students on the required curriculum, the stuff that we are all held accountable for our students to learn. Improving is good! Continuous improvement is even better! But transformative education impacts something at the core of the ed- ucational soul, the belief that education does more than dispense knowledge. It builds hope for the student’s future, faith in the stu- dent’s value to the world, and must be rooted in a love for learning that will not quit. We think this kind of transformation is needed. We think educa-


tors should be leading the way. But consider some of the things that may be done to us.


The Critical Thinking Bill SB 402 would require each curriculum framework to describe


how content can be delivered to intentionally build creativity, in- novation, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and


Glen Warren is vice president of the California School Library Association. George Manthey is assistant executive director, ACSA Educational Services.


September/October 2011 35


communication into and across each content area, to the extent the description is deemed appropriate by the state board. Come now. Do educators need politicians to be telling us that critical thinking and problem solving need to be returned to the classroom? Shouldn’t we be requiring this of our students already?


Implementation of online learning Another symptom of the need for real transformation is the com-


mon implementation of online learning, blended or otherwise, does not include a teacher librarian, the information literacy specialist teacher. Some think that in the world of Google, students will learn information literacy by osmosis, or worse, by untrained personnel. The Library Association of the University of California published a letter to the California State Board of Education stating that un- dergraduates within the UC system were not prepared or equipped to access, evaluate, integrate and use information. With the flood of information


that is flying toward our students, how is it that we are not going to provide competent supervision? Who will be there to ask a student who walks into the virtual or brick-and-mortar library, “What do you want to learn?” We know that we must mea-


sure student learning, collect data, and respond to any lack of


required achievement. However, we also know that not everything we measure is most important. In fact, there are matters that are not measured that might be as important (perhaps more) as those things that we do measure.


Advancing the unmeasured values Most of us became educators because we had a love for students,


a faith in education, and a hope for the future of our students. These things may not be measured in standardized tests, but they are foun- dational to the work we do. Transformational innovation advances the unmeasured values.


That’s the transformation we think our students deserve. That’s the transformation we think the world requires. For the love we have for our students and the hope we have for this world, let’s not settle for any transformation that does less. n


Resources


Christensen, Clayton; Johnson, Curtis & Horn, Michael. (2008). Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation will Change the Way the World Learns. McGraw-Hill.


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