Computers Disrupt the Classroom
Class sizes are growing. Teachers have too many students. National testing forces school districts to focus on scores in math and reading to the detriment of courses like art and Greek. Focus on what you are graded on and forget the rest seems to be their mantra. Since high grades support more money for education, you can't blame them. There must be another way to get a good education, however.
Larger class sizes and concentration of students in specific courses allows for computerization in grading and teaching. Where teachers (and their unions) have allowed computers to grow in influence, computers are now teaching classes. Their class plans are the same in teacher led classes and computer taught classes. The tests are the same. Theoretically, the results are the same. That's a concentration strategy. Concentrate on what you're already doing. Forget the fringe classes like Greek and art.
This concentration yields two strategies for a disruptive company. The first is in tutoring all those students who don't get it the first time around in their teacher (or compute) led classes. Tutoring schemas in on the web can be modified to mimic the learning style of a student who doesn't keep up in a regular class. They can work at the pace of the student, not the state-approved syllabus. The second opportunity for the disruptive company is teaching all the classes regular instruction can't focus on, like the art and Greek we've been talking about. A student-paced computer can teach all sorts of topics that regular classes can't, at a pace the ensures that the student really learns. The computer, organized through the web, can find a human tutor who will make sure the student is getting what she needs. Maybe a Japanese high school student who wants to practice his English pronunciation but is good at Algebra II tutors an American student who has fallen behind in Algebra. Everybody wins, including the company that is paid to put it all together.
Now, where's the sale get made? It's not the district - it's too worried about the bigger classes that drive the No Student Left Behind testing. It might be an Algebra teacher, a counselor, a parent, or another student. A referral is made, outside the normal scheme of things, and another student begins to really understand Algebra. Everyone wins. If you own a software company, how do you market? You don't market to the union or the curriculum committee. You market to referrers, to users groups, to tutoring organizations, any group that looks at individual performance and hopes for better. This isn't a hope strategy, however. It's the growth strategy for the future for any company that wants to sell more software to schools (Christensen, 38).
Christensen, Clayton M. Disrupting Class. How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. McGrawHill. 2008.