disruptive technologies in education

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Disruptive Technologies in Education

Adapted from “Dancing with the Devil: the Knowledge Worker Waltz”

by Rodney B. Murray, Ph.D.Presented at AISR Retreat

June 1999

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Technology Drivers

• Shift from manufacturing to services (atoms to bits; books to Web)

• Digital convergence(television, telephone, computers, Web)

• Supply chain economics (just-in-time manufacturing; learning)

• Information as commodity

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Societal Needs

• Industry and the Military still spend more on education than the Public and Private Education Sector

• Shift from – "just-in-case" education to – "just-in-time/any-time/any-place" education– and eventually, "just-for-you” education

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Changing Nature of Academic Activity

• 20th Century: Time-honored trinity of "teaching, research & service" (education, research & patient care)

• 21st Century: creating, preserving, integrating, transmitting and applying knowledge

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We are “Knowledge Workers” and the University is a “Knowledge Server”

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University as "Knowledge Server"Creating

Preserving

Integrating

Applying(Serving)

Transmitting

Research

Education

PatientCare

KnowledgeWorkers

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Teaching to Learning

• Now: teacher centered; classroom-based• Future: learner centered; anywhere, anytime• Teacher role designer, consultant,

coach

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Restructuring Higher Education

• Unbundling• Outsourcing• Strategic Partnerships• Spinning Off

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Unbundle Education

• Separate general education from mastery in a discipline or profession, i.e.,

• Separate delivery of content from certification of competency

• Sell educational modules, then full courses• Offer 'certificate' programs (Microsoft does)

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Outsource Services

• Keep core competencies in-house• Let others do what they do best• Email? Desktop support?• Lectures? Educational media?• What's next?

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Strategic Partnerships

• We provide the knowledge (content)• Partner with distributors:

– Traditional & Open Source publishers– Self Publishing (Jefferson Digital Commons)– Broadband delivery services

• Public Broadcast TV (WHYY?)• Cable Operators (Comcast?)

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Spinning Off

• Like outsourcing, but we outsource to ourselves • We do it now with Technology Transfer

“the creation of new companies based on University technology is also encouraged”

• Why not with computer-based learning and distance education?

• This is how we avoid the "Innovator's Dilemma"

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The Innovator's Dilemma: How disruptive technologies can destroy established markets

Clayton Christensen (1997, Harvard Business School Press)

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The Innovator’s Dilemma

• Why do some well-managed companies (education institutions) that stay on top of new technology and practice quality customer service still falter?

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The Innovator’s Dilemma

• Christensen suggests that by placing too great an emphasis on satisfying customers' current needs, companies fail to adapt or adopt new technology that will meet customers' unstated or future needs, and he argues that such companies will eventually fall behind. He calls this phenomenon “disruptive technology.”

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The Innovator's Dilemma• "Incumbent companies (Universities) ... hardly

ever bring new technologies to market"• "Sustaining and disruptive technologies are

very different..."• Educational technology is a "sustaining"

technology if we use it just to provide better, faster and cheaper education the same old way

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The Innovator's Dilemma (con't)

• The Internet and WWW are "disruptive" technologies for almost all businesses including the Education Establishment

• “incumbents will miss the value of the Internet, and new companies (institutions) will rise to dominate the Internet's new markets” (Amazon, Google, University of Phoenix, virtual universities)

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Why do incumbents fail with disruptive technologies?• DT development teams fail to compete for

resources with incumbent core technologies• Hewlett-Packard failed at first by keeping

laser printer development in-house• Xerox didn’t embrace the DT they helped to

invent -- the GUI• Many, many business cases show similar

failures

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Recent Examples of DT Failures

• The music and film industry incumbents are struggling to fight the tide of DT in media (downloadable music and movies) instead of embracing the new DTs and re-inventing themselves

• Sony of Walkman fame totally misses the portable mp3 music player market thanks to Apple and its iPod

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How can Incumbents Meet the Challenge of Disruptive Technologies?

• …by spinning off, or at least “in-sourcing”• IBM established a new unit and built the PC

at a new location in Boca Raton, Florida• Toys-R-US spun off ‘toys-r-us.com’• Barnes & Noble spun off

‘barnesandnoble.com’

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Classic Case Study

• AA (AMR Corp.) developed the Sabre Airline Ticket Reservation System for in-house use

• Sabre was ‘spun off’ as a separate business (TSG) selling it’s services to other airlines; runs travelocity.com, and sells IT services

• AMR makes more money selling information via Sabre than it does flying airplanes!!!

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Lessons Learned

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Lessons Learned

• Remove unnecessary processes and administrative structures

• Micromanaged institutions will not flourish• Engage campus in a vision (AISR’s

Learning Infrastructure Project)• Develop the capacity for change -- be a

change agent!

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Lessions Learned (con't)

• Develop the faculty• Manage IT as a strategic campus asset• Focus on assessment of student outcomes• Make universal, convenient, and affordable

access to PCs, the Internet, and software a reality for all students and employees

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Lessions Learned (con't)

• Devise strategies ... Be agile• Focus on core competencies• Outsource where practical• Spin off business units to exploit the new

disruptive technologies

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What “Disruptive Technologies” are Challenging Education now?

• Web 2.0 Technologies– Blogs– Wiki’s– Podcasting– Enhanced (video) Podcasting– Open education

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university.com ?Maybe our University should spin off a “dot

com” and develop these “disruptive” educational technologies

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References

• Dancing with the Devil, Richard N. Katz (Editor), Jossey-Bass Publishers.

• The Monster Under the Bed, Stan Davis, Touchstone Books.

• The Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton M. Christensen, Harvard Business School Press.

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For more information visit…

Rod’s Pulse Podcasthttp://www.RodsPulsePodcast.com

rod@RodsPulsePodcast.com