Reimagine what is possible in schooling

December 6, 2010 •

This past summer Apple senior vice president for retail Ron Johnson spoke to the Civic Caucus policy group, and this blog commented on Apple’s One-to-One education program that he described. In designing the stores, he said, they first went to auditorium seating for teaching lessons to customers.

Immediately they began experiencing fewer questions during the sessions, and more after—when customers would come up to Apple team members individually. ‘Okay, now here’s my question,’ they seemed to ask. So Apple flipped their training; going instead to the personalized format from the ground up.

The discussion has been getting picked up by Apple-focused blogs, from the United States to France.

The development and interest in iPads is another demonstration of how advanced electronics have become, and are working their way into the lives of so many people today. Last Wednesday’s post described one school’s response to the inevitability that cell phones will have a presence in schools – don’t ban phones, ban disruption.

Electronics are only part of the equation, however. Those working in schools need to be able to re-imagine processes of teaching and learning.

Is the job of teacher about compliance, or seeking improvement?

Is the task of running a school about compliance, or about rethinking operations to work best?