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| Opportunities: Embracing Disruptive Innovation with the Next Generation of E-Learners |
"Virtual high schools are widening access and providing learning opportunities to increasingly diverse student populations." These schools delivered courses to around 275,000 students in rural, urban, suburban, and home-schooled environments. As with our postsecondary program offerings, the virtual high schools are widening access and providing learning opportunities to increasingly diverse student populations. Rather than increasing the digital divide, the virtual high schools are using a variety of creative and collaborative approaches to meet a previously unmet need: providing students from disadvantaged areas with access to innovative and technologically enhanced learning opportunities. Clearly, preparing for the next generation of e-learners is a complex proposition, and one requiring us to engage in some new thinking. While most of our online students and faculty today are “digital immigrants,” soon we will have a “blended” classroom comprised of first- and second-generation “immigrants.” It will not be that far away before we find ourselves trying to accommodate the learning needs of not only these two generations of “immigrants” but also some “digital natives.” How will we meet the technological challenges associated with multiple generations of users -- with a one-size-fits-all technology delivery model? In the same way we have discovered that we need a variety of online models to accommodate the current learning styles of our students and the goals of our institutions, we need to design courses with various generations of users in mind. As we have progressed technologically from text-based to multimedia-oriented online offerings, the time is right for us to reexamine pedagogy too so we are able to accommodate technologically sophisticated 21st century learners. We have the unique opportunity to sustain the momentum and lead the way in higher education as masters of disruptive innovation.
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Tana
Bishop Graduate School at University of Maryland University College Sloan-C Editor for Effective Practices in Cost Effectiveness |
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Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen is well-known for his theory of “disruptive innovation.” In simplest terms, this is a strategy that organizations use to leverage changes (whether environmental or man-made) to their competitive advantage. For example, an enterprise may intentionally undercut its high-end product with a more moderately-priced version to gain some of the down-market share. Or, a business may view technology drivers as critical to their sustainability and adjust product, process, and pricing accordingly. "Tomorrow will find us in 'permanent whitewater'." Examples of “disruptive innovation” abound in higher education. While many of our institutions once were campus-oriented, we have rapidly transitioned over the past several years to online environments or a combination of the traditional with the “disruptive.” Technological advances that continually emerge ensure that tomorrow too will find us in the “permanent whitewater” environment that author and scholar Peter Vaill so aptly describes. In addition to the challenges we face with “disruptive” technology, pedagogical shifts continue as student populations form a blend of what author Marc Prensky terms the “digital native” and “digital immigrant.” You might believe this assessment of the emergent
environment is overstated. Many thought, or perhaps hoped, that
the demand for online courses would wane. Even those who were unconvinced
have retreated from that position as the online market continues
to expand exponentially. The growth in distance courses is not
limited to higher education. Raymond Rose, of the Concord Consortium
(an organization comprised of virtual schools), noted the existence
of some 88 identifiable virtual high schools across the nation
in 2001-2002. |
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