Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools

Educators, parents, and students are approaching the tipping point in a digital transformation that will forever change the way the world learns. If online learning has not already rocked their local schools, then it will soon. Michael Horn and his Disrupting Class collaborators made that prediction in 2008 when they calculated that by 2019, 50% of high school courses would be online in some form or fashion. Years later, that prediction continues to appear accurate, if not conservative. People may debate the timing, but the more important question is how to channel the indisputable emergence of online learning across elementary, middle, and high schools into a positive force that makes life better for students and their teachers. How can leaders unlock the benefits of online learning and mitigate the risks? Five years after the first publication of Disrupting Class, the field is ready for a companion guide that provides the how to guidance for which educators are clamoring. Blended: A Field Guide to Disrupting Class will help leaders, teachers, and other stakeholders interested in a more student-centered system understand how to begin. It provides a step-by-step framework, responsive to the frequently asked questions from education leaders who are trying to implement blended learning. The goal is for every reader to have the necessary expertise to go forth with confidence and be the builders of the next generation of K-12 learning environments.