Archives: Book Club

The Quick and the Ed has a good post today about proposed limitations to Florida’s Virtual Public School. The author makes a direct reference to Disrupting Class.

The selection for the next staff book club is Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson, and Michael B. Horn. The review from Publishers Weekly is listed below. Click on the link to see more reviews and reader comments.

From Publishers Weekly
It’s no secret that people learn in different ways, so why, the authors of this book ask, “can’t schools customize their teaching?” The current system, “designed for standardization,” must by its nature ignore the individual needs of each student. The answer to this problem, the authors argue, is “disruptive innovation,” a principle introduced (and initially applied to business) by Harvard Business School professor Christensen in The Innovator’s Dilemma. The idea is that an audience in need will benefit from even a faulty opportunity to fulfill that need; in education, the demand for individual instruction could be met through infinitely customizable online computer-based instruction. The authors, all professionals in education, present a solution to the ills of standardized education that’s visionary but far-fetched; even they admit that their recommendations would be extremely difficult to implement in current school systems. Still, the authors’ unusual case, though occasionally bogged down in tangents, is worthy reading for school administrators, teachers, parents and, perhaps most of all, software developers. Charts.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

http://www.amazon.com/Disrupting-Class-Disruptive-Innovation-Change/dp/0071592067/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231788969&sr=8-1

For our next book club selection, I’d like to suggest Tribes by Seth Godin. As we build off the work of the Network Working Group and our efforts to mobilize our network of coordinators and groupies, Tribes applies to LEARN NC because it discusses how other individuals and organizations have accomplished precisely what we’re trying to do.

To best describe what the book is, I’ll start with what it’s not:

• Not a how-to book. This book won’t give us an easy formula to mobilize our ambassadors. Godin explicitly states he doesn’t have step-by-step plan to get people to do what we want them to do. There’s not a single strategy or tip to be found. Instead, Tribes presents dozens of case studies of how people have harnessed technology, charisma and courage to inspire their fans to spread the word. Godin also states there’s no single right way to lead a tribe of people–the only thing his examples have in common is they make remarkable things or perform remarkable services, without which they wouldn’t have fans in the first place. LEARN NC does make remarkable things, and we’ve got the fans to prove it.
• Not a guide to social media marketing. While many of the case studies use services like Twitter or Facebook, Godin makes it very clear that these are just tools to facilitate communication and leadership. While he states that these tools make it easier than ever to communicate with a tribe (and allow them to communicate with each other), it’s knowing how and when to communicate with people that matters, whether you communicate via social network, in person, over the phone, or whatever.
• Not heavy. Tribes is a little on the airy side, and you can get through it in only a couple of hours (I listened to the audiobook, which clocks in at less than four hours). However, after slugging through Shame of the Nation, perhaps that’s what we need right now.

Through years of hard work and providing services that are truly helpful to teachers, LEARN NC has built an enthusiastic bunch of fans. Though Tribes won’t provide a bulleted list of how to get them to do our bidding, it does present many ideas and strategies that have worked for others, which can hopefully inspire us as we look to do the same.

Like this idea? Want to suggest something different? Sound off in the comments.

Here are the discussion questions for today’s brown bag.

1. What is one new fact you learned from reading this book?

2. What moved, captivated or infuriated you about the first four chapters?

3. Is there an outstanding passage that resonated with you?

4. How does the book portray justice, compassion, courage or wisdom?

5. To what motives does Kozol attribute the state of public schooling for the nation’s poor? Do you agree or disagree with him?

6. What do you think is Kozol’s motivation for writing this book? Was the point of the book to share an opinion, explain a topic, tell about a personal journey, or something else? Did the author do it well?

7. What does this book say about human nature?

Join us to read Shame of the Nation by Jonathan Kozol in the LEARN book club. We will order copies of the book, and invitations will be sent to those interested to the brown bag meetings on November 17, December 15 and January 12.

Email Keri by October 15 if you are interested.

Read the review from Publishers Weekly here: http://www.amazon.com/Shame-Nation-Restoration-Apartheid-Schooling/dp/1400052459/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220971936&sr=8-1