Inevitable: An Inside Job

Published Tuesday, April 24, 2012 by Chuck Schwahn in  

When we write, we attempt to share ideas and get people excited about innovative visions that have the potential to improve learning for learners. Later, if and when the book is successful, we learn in reverse some of the things that made the ideas/visions fly. When Bill Spady and I wrote Total Leaders for AASA, we didn't realize that it was probably the only "Ed Leadership" book that looked at education through leadership eyes. Other leadership books looked at leadership through old, entrenched, unsolvable "educational issues" eyes. The Total Leaders Framework allowed educational leaders see their role from a much larger perspective. They were able to see things anew, out-of-the-box you might say.


Bea and I had a similar hit about Inevitable: Mass Customized Learning recently. When we think about education and technology today, most of the innovation is coming from those deep in technology and not so deep in education and learning. Inevitable looks at technology through educator eyes. We apply technology to "transform" our learning paradigm. We don't/didn't think of technology first, we though of learning and leaders first.

So Inevitable doesn't "throw the baby out with the bathwater." Inevitable keeps the tried and true, our good practices and habits that research tells us work. We ask the most important question, "how is this learner outcome best learned." Those coming from the technology side tend to see "technology as teacher." While we think much of what we now want learners to know, be able to do, and to "be like" can be taught effectively through technology, we also know that the teacher's (learning facilitator's) role is critical for the most critical learner outcomes.

So, we now say that, "Inevitable: Mass Customized Learning is an Inside Job." (cjs)

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