One way to categorize Ed Tech innovations are between those of Sustaining versus Disruptive Innovations. Disruptive Innovation is a term coined by Harvard Business Professor Clayton Christensen in the mid 1990's. Christensen's website for his organization, The Clayton Christensen Institute describes the idea as follows:
The theory explains the phenomenon by which an innovation transforms an existing market or sector by introducing simplicity, convenience, accessibility, and affordability where complication and high cost are the status quo. Initially, a disruptive innovation is formed in a niche market that may appear unattractive or inconsequential to industry incumbents, but eventually the new product or idea completely redefines the industry. A classic example is the personal computer. Prior to its introduction, mainframes and minicomputers were the prevailing products in the computing industry. At a minimum, they were priced around $200,000 and required engineering experience to operate. Apple, one of the pioneers in personal computing, began selling its early computers in the late 1970s and early 1980s—but as a toy for children. At that point, the product wasn't good enough to compete with the minicomputers, but Apple’s customers didn't care because they couldn't afford or use the expensive minicomputers. The inferior computer was much better than their alternative: nothing at all. Little by little, the innovation improved. Within a few years, the smaller, more affordable personal computer became good enough that it could do the work that previously required minicomputers. This created a huge new market and ultimately eliminated the existing industry.
According to Christensen, the opposite of a Disruptive Innovation is a Sustaining Innovation, which is defined as an innovation that is used to improve performance within the status quo. As a member of the status quo, the technology innovations I use are almost exclusively Sustaining Innovations. For example, I use a common test making computer program. This allows me to make tests much faster and easier, and allows me to make multiple versions of the same test with scrambled answers, which puts down on cheating. Google an Microsoft are currently in a battle to establish themselves as leaders of Sustaining Innovation within the classroom. I hope to summarize what Google and Microsoft are doing in a subsequent post. Suffice it to say that, at this point in time, nothing of what they are doing is Disruptive.
Which brings me to Minerva. Minerva is a college started by tech mogul Ben Nelson, founder of Snapfish . Here is a video from their website:
More than one pundit has predicted that there is a "bubble" in the higher education market. College tuition rates have skyrocketed as schools build more and more amenities into their campuses (for example, Texas State University, has a golf simulator for student use, Boston University has a 35 foot climbing wall, and U.C. Davis has a residence hall that includes a private pool, spa, and patio) as well as offerings (The University of Wisconsin's Women's Studies Department offers a course called "Daytime Serials:Family and Social Roles", in which students watch daytime soap operas and use their new found insights to understand gender roles in the family and the workplace). Students (parents?) are willing to pay these bills because they continue to believe that a college education will pay for itself in the long run. Minerva, is not trying to compete with climbing walls, spas, or 80,000 seat football stadiums. As the video says, they are not an online school, but they teach their courses online. With online courses, not only don't they need to build football stadiums, they don't even need classrooms. They don't have a limited number of seats that would exist in a physical classroom, so they will accept any students who meet their entrance requirements. Furthermore, they can send their students anywhere in the world to learn (which they do multiple times throughout their four years). Oh, and their tuition is $10,000 per year. I've listened to and read a lot of the information on their website and I find their ideas intriguing.
Who knows how this will work out. Actually, that is not the main point. Whether or not Minerva succeeds, technology may be in the process of allowing for education experiments that were heretofore impossible.
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