The Adams School
P.O. Box 29
27 School Street
Castine, Maine 04421
326-8608
www.adamsschool.com
Our Disruptive Innovations
A
“disruptive innovation” has arrived at
Clayton
Christensen’s forthcoming book, Disrupting
Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns,
gives context for a certain innovation revelation in social studies
class on
Tuesday. “[Christensen’s] books analyze why leading companies in
various
industries…were knocked off by upstarts that were better able to take
advantage
of innovations based on new technology and changing conditions.”
(Andrew
Trotter, Education Week) Schools, I
realized, are similarly vulnerable to upstarts as common as the laptop.
But we
don’t always consider the extent to which innovations insist on new
habits of
mind and behavior. Disruptions are good for us; even seemingly small
ones
create useful adaptations.
Woodrow
Wilson happened to be the subject for Tuesday’s coincidence. Many
scholars
consider him the first modern president: the first to endorse, and use,
the
typewriter; the first president in 114 years to address congress in
person; the
president who ended child labor in the
As the 7th
and 8th graders reviewed a PBS American
Experience film about
Schools,
like other institutions, tend to add technology onto “existing
architecture,
which is dominated by the ‘monolithic’ processes of textbook creation
and
adoption, teaching practices and training, and standardized
assessment—which,
despite some efforts at individualization, by and large treat students
the
same.” (EW) Just as the meaning of
“note-taking” has shifted, “school” itself could shift to new
definitions.
Online learning, for example, is a rapidly growing innovation that
might
supersede physical schools, increasing education consumption.
Christensen
predicts that by 2019, “online learning will account for 50 percent of
high
school course enrollments.”
What does the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (AKA the laptop program) mean as disruptive innovation in our schools? Will digital tools play the role of innovation upstarts, as
they do in industry, and
knock-off learning institutions
caught napping? I’m wondering if they haven’t already. In fact, the
tipping
point may be back a ways. Contemporary school topics tend to be more
about
financial, administrative, and structural disruption than about the
innovations
that redefine learning…that we’ve already invited into every aspect of
our
lives. Schools should be the most upstart institutions we know! If not,
how can
we prepare kids to innovate…or allow them to prepare us for innovation?
They
are also native to accelerated change.
It’s
hard not to define an era by its predominant tools. We live in the
digital age,
which used to be the computer age, which followed the nuclear age, the
post-industrial age, industrial age, age of sail, etc. right back to
the bronze
age and stone age. Of course at some point in the future, “digital age”
may
develop the connotation that “stone age” has to us: primitive. Every
age is
eventually somebody’s “primitive.”
But it can
be hard to grasp the legacy of our tools. Will our greatest upstart
innovations
be Instant Messaging, 500 high definition satellite television
channels, My
Space and FaceBook, the graphic novel, a verb like “Googling” and
universal
access to the blurring of information and infotainment—all of which
make money,
but not, perhaps, enlightenment. Is the learning medium the message!
Or, could
ours be another age of enlightenment? I’m hoping the predominant tool
is the
mind. Aren’t new thoughts the greatest of disruptive innovations?
Shouldn’t
school be innovative thinking, whatever the medium—making the world
safe for
more democratic access to enlightenment?
—Todd
Golf
Lost and
found:
Watch the outdoors clothesline for familiar items….
Weslandia!
Play
rehearsals next week will be as follows:
Tuesdays: Act I scene 2; Act II,
scenes 2,4; Act III (Dudes, Wes, Ariel, Bob, Palindromio, Stage
Manager, CWG,
Mailman, Weslandians).
Wednesdays: Act I, scenes 1,3,4;
Act II: scenes 1,3. (Wes, Ariel, Eve, Bob, Mailman, Mrs. Stevens, Mr.
Mayo,
Stage Manager, Weslandians).
Thursdays: All actors grades 4-8
Rehearsals are in Emerson Hall from
Younger students…On May 29 and June
3, we’ll add in any students in K-3 who would like to be in the play
for big
“chorus” scenes.
Final P-T
Conferences: If you would like an end-of-year conference with
teachers, we
will be scheduling them for the afternoons of June 17, 18, 19 from
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Monday – Cheesy Chicken Pasta Bake, Rolls, Carrots, Pears, Milk
Tuesday – Tacos, Muffin, Salad, Applesauce, Milk
Weds. – Macaroni Salad with Ham, Italian Bread, Cucumbers, Cherry Crisp, Milk
Thursday – Pizza, Salad, Trail Mix, Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, Milk
Friday – Chicken Burgers, Smiley Fries, Popsicle, Pumpkin Bars, Milk
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Calendar
Update
May
21 Follow
monday class schedule for French
class make-up (due to Mem. Day)
26 Memorial
Day
28 Early
Release Day: Dismissal at
June
2
Step-Up Day for new Kindergarteners.
4
Dress Rehearsals for School Play....in
5
Performance of "Weslandia,"
9
5-6th graders to
10-11 8th
graders to
12 Spring
Concert in Emerson Hall,
13 Third
Trimester Ends
13 Earth Day
activities in morning; Smorgs in
afternoon.
16 8th Grade
graduation...
17
Field
Day/ P-T Conferences,
18
Holbrook
Island Trip (K-4) Rain date: 19th. P-T conferences.
19
P-T
conferences…2:15-4:45.
20
Last Student Day: backshore picnic
23
Inservice
day
Summer vacation….see you
on September 2 for school year
2008-2009.