Real Innovation in American Classrooms is Way Overdue

Clay Christensen, Harvard Business School professor, global business guru, and Big Think expert chats on Education Week tomorrow on the merits of “dispruptive innovation.“

Christensen has turned education reform on its head with his strong argument for a new approach to addressing students’ individual needs. For example, he says although we have had computers in American classrooms for decades, we haven’t used them to our advantage. Teachers have introduced technology to their lessons while sticking to old pedagogical paradigms. In short, computers are treated little different than overhead projectors. Christensen argues for technology to be tailored to an individual student’a aptitude, not a state-mandated average.

Saying no to standards-based eduactional models is  certainly the new vogue in pedagogy. Twenty-first century skills, like fluency with technology and syncretic thinking, are the wave of the future.

For more reading on innovation in the classroom, refer to the Education Sector’s prescient report on the use of technology in student assessment and debate your thoughts on integrating technology into education at Big Think.