I recommend you read a wide-ranging article from Salon (Will Oremus) on the changing focus of the textbook industry.
The article is about a shift from traditional textbooks to individualized content for student learning, but push on one part of the educational environment and all parts move. The article admits that proposed content delivery systems take on some of the traditional roles of the instructor. Hence the title of this post – a phrase from the article – teaching as triage. The article suggests teachers will review the data provided by the instructional system and make decisions – tutoring, small group instruction, etc.
The article uses ALEKS as the primary example of such a system and examines how this system originally developed as a grant project and then commercialized (now McGraw-Hill) works. Including in the analysis is how the publishing, now technology, company attempts to differentiate their commercial product from other services such as the Kahn Academy.
I wonder what most practicing teachers know about such systems. Most of us have little personal experience. I have used Lynda.com heavily and completed some required professional development instructionals required by my university, but this is different from being a participant or instructor for a full-length course. I wonder if this is not part of the challenge. How do you provide the personal experiences necessary to secure buy-in when the model obviously requires different behaviors than one has experienced.
The recommendation I make is that educators take the time to work their way through a Kahn Academy experience that requires they function as a learner. For many, this might be a topic such as programming. I also believe large school districts need to be open to public charter or magnet schools based on what is probably best described as a “hybrid” model. You will not see this experimentation in smaller district, but fully functioning examples open to visitation will likely be necessary to encourage broad change.
