Abeles_Deconstructing_the_Oracle.pdf

8/14/2019 Abeles_Deconstructing_the_Oracle.pdf

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e-mentor

No 2 (29) / 2009

www.e-mentor.edu.pl/eng

Tom P. Abeles

Deconstructing the Oracle A e!iew o" Disrupting #lass$

The principle thesis of Disrupting Class is that the rise of e-learning changes education inmuch the same manner as the Apple computer did for mini/main frames in the business and

home pc market we hae toda!. Actuall!" the model being used in the book is supposed to follow

Christensen#s earl! writings on innoation and disruption in the business sector$. %ut" while hisearlier writing" maps post secondar! education into his model&" this book focuses on the '-($

educational arena.

Christensen defines two methods for the entrance of a disruptie technolog!. T!pe ( enters the

market b! meeting the needs of an under or non-sered population. T!pe $ enters the market

place b! proiding a lower cost alternatie which" initiall!" might proe to be an inferior but

acceptable product or serice. %ecause '-($ is compulsor!" the marketplace is distorted. The '-($ market has a host of political pressures" such as teachers# unions and a ariet! of priate

pressure groups" and thus the s!stem is highl! constrained. )en so" there are currentl! a ariet!

of options to the traditional public school s!stem ranging from home-schools and charters toirtual courses within schools or packaged as entire programs.

Post secondar! institutions are feeling fiscal pressure" while" the primar!/secondar! institutions

hae multiple problems ranging from finances to a high percentage of students failing to meetacademic e*pectations. Additionall!" there are e*ternal pressures as priate/for-profit institutions

are starting to compete b! opening both brick-based and click" or irtual campuses. Thus there

seems to be other motiations" not reall! stated clearl!" as to wh! Christensen felt compelled totr! to fit the '-($ s!stem into his innoation/disruption model" een if the focus is on the rise of

e-courses and e- schools.

)ducation has alwa!s had competition between the public and priate sectors" both non- and for-

profit institutions. The e*pansion of all sectors into e-learning" different from traditional distance

education" represents the e+uialent of competitie enterprises entering new or e*panding oldmarkets. ,ome hae seen the current e-learning technologies as being disruptie" causing a

change b! allowing the entrance of new competition" such as the emerging irtual uniersities.%ut careful e*amination shows that all parties are aware of" and hae e+ual access to" the same

technologies and like other enterprises" hae chosen to selectiel! deelop different markets

(Christensen" Cla!ton ." et. al."Disrupting Class" craw-ill" 0ew 1ork" $223.$C.. Christensen" The Innovators Dilemma" arard %usiness ,chool Press" %oston (445.6 C.. Christensen" .

7a!nor" The 8nnoator#s ,olution" arard %usiness ,chool Press" %oston $22&.6 C.. Christensen" ).A. 7oth" ,.D.

Anthon!" Seeing Whats Next" arard %usiness ,chool Press" %oston $229 .&C.. Christensen" et. al."Disrupting Education" in . Deilin. et. al." The Forum on The Internet & the Universit"

)ducause" %oulder Colorado $22(.


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using the same ehicles and methodologies. Competitie adantages include price" curriculum"

schedules and similar traditional ehicles for institutional differentiation.

,ince educational institutions at the post secondar! leel" e+uall!" hae access to similar

facilities" be the! a ph!sical enironment :the traditional campus; or the irtual enironment

:hardware and software;" the! can choose how the! wish to compete. The balance betweencampus t!pes becomes one of choice" such as whether to add apartments instead of dormitories"

or to rebuild the sports comple* on campus. Thus the idea that the introduction of e-learning as

being disruptie to education seems to be a mis-direction as the technolog! competes more withthe construction industr! for a share of the education marketplace. Can the institution leerage

facult! costs b! hiring remotel! or sharing facult! with institutions around the world< Can the

campus reduce capital and concomitant oerhead b! offering irtual classes rather than building

a new facilit!< =r" can an institution compete internationall! without haing to open ph!sicalcampuses in other communities or countriesected to the remoal of the caboose and brakeman from freight trains as roller bearings andother safet! features rendered the >ob obsolete. ?nlike man! disruptie technologies which lead

to new competition" e-learning in its current embodiment of mapping bricks into clicks

represents transformation within the e*isting educational s!stem regardless of proider.

Cla!ton Christensen has written e*tensiel! about disruptie enterprises within the priate sector

and has deeloped his model which maps how these innoations hae entered established

markets" often becoming contributing factors in the demise of ma>or" established" pla!ers.Disrupting Class is an effort to map the primar!/secondar! education s!stem in the ?nited ,tates

into his model. 8t is also his first effort to be undertaken with co-authors who are inoled in

both speculating about and adocating for change in the education s!stem. Christensen andcolleagues identif! the introduction of computers into education as the innoatie change" a

technolog! which is belieed to be one which will follow his disruptie model and establish a

dominant or dominating presence in education#s future.

The core of the book#s argument rests on the standard sigmoid adoption cure which the authors

re-plot on a log of the ratio of conerted courses/standard courses ersus time to determine that

in about a decade about @2 of all courses will be taught irtuall! in the '-($ school s!stems.Bhile the authors carefull! make the argument as to wh! irtual conersion is compelling in

order to reform the educational s!stem" the! fail to conince that this transformation will occur

within that time frame" that it is disruptie and/or transformatie. This does not sa! thatindiiduals are not coninced of the merit of on-line learning" or that there will be growth in the

education marketplace. 7ather the arguments put forth in Christensen#s earlier works which look

at the business sector do not seem to map into the educational arena as the book attempts topresent the scenario.

Part of this concern rests on the definition of disruptie which has within its definition a time-

sensitie sensibilit!. To a a!fl! a decade ma! be an infinitel! long time whereas to a


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alapagos tortoise" such a period is but an e!e blink. The book" while suggesting some of the

benefits for conersion" sta!ed at the meta-leel" choosing to define how such conersions would

cause transformational changes" and drie the change. There is no clear and compelling modelwhich would back the naie prediction based on a linear" continuous change from brick to click

based education.

Christensen" in this and earlier works" suggests that these disruptie technologies address a

market with unmet needs at a price/performance point that comes under the current" dominant

market in price. 8n education" with its great concern for cost" there is a reach for an! cost cuttingopportunit!" including e-learning" where e-delier!" toda!" is basicall! a mapping of bricks into

clicks and thus competes with current infrastructure rather than with the concept of a competitie

educational model. As suggested" aboe" '-($ has not been aerse to adopting technolog!

proided it offered a pedagogical adantage. Thus e-learning competes with alternatie delier!s!stems from te*tbooks to classrooms and faces barriers couched in educational terms onl! when

it affects the current economic structure such as teacher >ob securit!.

an! in the education field see e-learning as another tool which complements current models6and the technolog! itself is seen as an alternatie to computer deliered s!stems such as power

point" word processing and didactic material delier! much as oerheads" e-books" white boards"ideo cameras and two wa! audio/ideo delier! such as closed circuit T. The! do see that it

has adantages and problems.

8f Christensen and colleagues had gotten down to the ground leel to better define the disruptie

computer-based technolog!" the! might hae skipped oer the dominant brick-to-click s!stems

such as %lackboard or Adobe Connect and similar s!stems and gone straight to the emerging

domain of irtual worlds. ike the Apple computer that Christensen has pointed out in man! ofhis writings" the earl! e*ample of these worlds has been in the game and entertainment arena as

we hae seen in the assie ultipla!er =n-line ames :=7P; such as Borld of Barcraft

with its millions of global pla!ers. Erom this genre has arisen the user created enironments suchas 'ids/Tweens :'T; worlds" e.g. Bh!ille" Club Penguin and abbo otel or both the adult

and teen worlds e*emplified b! ,econd ife :,;. Current estimates are that registered users of

irtual worlds" internationall!" are about &22 million with about (2 as actie users.

The modern internet is onl! about (@ !ears old and irtual worlds onl! about 5 !ears in age.

,tee Prentice" fellow of the arner roup" estimates that 32 of actie 8nternet users will be in

non-gaming irtual worlds. . .b! the end of $2((9. This seems to impl! that as more peoplebecome internet users" more will become part of the application defined as irtual worlds"

probabl! the specific disruptie e-technolog!. ,ince education is a lagging indicator" it will

follow close behind. As suggested aboe" this seems to impl! that the competitie disruption liesmore with the proiders of space and place" the construction industr! which has proided" from

the beginning" the eoling little red school house.

9A. ronstedt" %e Eirst in ,econd ife" eFtraining" ,eptember $223" page $4


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The disruption is the irtual world" not >ust the internet and not >ust in education. Alread! seeral

social scientists hae issued ma>or studies of the cultures emerging in these worlds. This includes

economists and anthropologists of arious specialties@.

DiGG!wood" a 'T social networking world of about @22"222 registered users" recentl! teamed

with a public school as a demonstration that c!ber-space actiities" including simple e-mails"hae conse+uences in the outer world. Alread! these irtual worlds hae created cultures so

that trael between all worlds" including this outer world and multiple irtual worlds is more

like traeling between countries with their own customs. Bhat happens to education when life-st!les and habits learned in c!ber space" including collaboratie learning and sharing start to

appear as disruptie in traditional classroom settings

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Abeles_Deconstructing_the_Oracle.pdf