Presentation originally delivered at a Thomas Jefferson University retreat in June of 1999! Ideas are sound but not much has changed. Is your University looking out for possible disruption?

1. July 11, 2006 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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Education
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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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Education
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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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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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Education
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We are “Knowledge Workers”
and the University is a
“Knowledge Server”

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Education
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University as "Knowledge Server"
Creating
Preserving
Integrating
Applying
(Serving)
Transmitting
Research
Education
Patient
Care
Knowledge
Workers

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Education
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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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Education
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Restructuring Higher Education
• Unbundling
• Outsourcing
• Strategic Partnerships
• Spinning Off

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Education
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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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Education
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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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Education
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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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Education
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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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Education
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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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Education
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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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Education
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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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Education
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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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Education
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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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Education
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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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Education
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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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Education
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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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Education
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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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Education
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Lessons Learned

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Education
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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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Education
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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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Education
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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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Education
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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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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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Education
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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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Education
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For more information visit…
Rod’s Pulse Podcast
http://www.RodsPulsePodcast.com
rod@RodsPulsePodcast.com