25 Trends Disrupting Education Right Now

“25 Trends Disrupting Education Right Now” by Terry Heick first appeared on TeachThought.

Disruption doesn’t sound like a pretty word, but in the long run, it can be a beautiful thing. Disruption is about shifting power. Eroding patterns. Breaking the system.
In education, this can come from the most unlikely of sources. While brilliant folks struggle to their marrow every day to conjure ideas that will transform education, in other cases, it just seems to happen out of nowhere.
In these cases, small moves via modest platforms create large ripples.
It isn’t always from the most powerful technology, the most noble intents, or even the best ideas that disrupt. In fact, it is impossible to predict what will allow something to “catch”–there are simply so many moving parts.
So we’ve created a scale. This scale visually demonstrates the inherent disruptive potential of recent and current education initiatives or technological advancements.
It is not meant to be exhaustive, and it’s absolutely subjective, but maybe we’ll be lucky enough that it might spark a conversation.
And it is through informed conversation that more disruption can grow.
Note that this is not intended to be an evaluation of the quality of each of these initiatives. In that way, it’s not suggesting that “smartphone integration” has more educational value than MITx. Rather, it is strictly a look at the potential of that initiative to disrupt existing systems.
Re-balance power.
And catalyze new learning forms.

More Disruption

  1. The Internet

  2. New Learning Models

  3. Khan Academy

  4. BYOD/Smartphone Integration

  5. MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses)

  6. Service-Based Learning/Place-Based Learning

  7. Growth of “Home-schooling”

  8. Flipped Classroom

  9. Project-Based Learning

  10. iTunesU

  11. Learni.st/MentorMob

  12. TED-Ed

  13. 1:1 iPads

  14. MITx/EdX

  15. Social Media Integration

  16. 1:1 Laptop programs

  17. MIT OpenCourseWare

  18. Non 1:1 laptop-iPad programs

  19. Apple Textbook Initiative

  20. Professional Learning Communities

  21. Teach for America

  22. Charter Schools

  23. Gender-Specific Classes

  24. Race to the Top

  25. Common Core Adoption (i.e., one set of national standards)

Less Disruption

 
Photo courtesy of BigStock.

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1 Comment

Floris Koot
9/16/2012

The biggest disruption may, depending on how you look at it, either be the whole 'old system' that has become a outdated monster incapable to prepare young people for their common future: even worse; education disconnects young people from their playful nature, from their aspirations and molds them towards a system that should not embrace the blind, half dead robots organizations call young potentials. They only get half lives in. Most young people end up their education with less hopes and dreams and less idealism than with which they started. Einstein said Imagination is more important than knowledge, education sees that the other way around. http://wayofthefool.blogspot.nl/2012/08/change-all-education.html
Or the positive disruption may be the rise of schools like knowmads. “The word Educare means to bring out that which is within. Human Values are latent in every human being; one cannot acquire them from outside. They have to be elicited from within. Educare means to bring out human values. To 'bring out' means to translate them into action." - Sathya Sai
How much clearer must it be made, that it is more important to help young people find their own wisdoms and gifts, rather than be potty trained all through education to acquire other peoples knowledge?

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