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How can schools around the world educate their students better? What does the future hold? Most researchers who study these questions in the field of education peer through the lenses of sociology and public policy. HBS professor Clayton M. Christensen and colleagues chose a different approach—the theory of disruptive innovation, often applied to a variety of other industries, such as technology and health care.

Building a Learning Community Palloff and Pratt recommend seven basic steps for building a successful learning community. These include: clearly defining the purpose of the community, creating a distinctive gathering place for the group, promoting effective leadership from within, defining norms and a clear code of conduct, allowing for a range of member roles, allowing for and facilitating of subgroups, and allowing members to resolve their own disputes. The authors caution that it is possible to develop a community that has strong social connections between the students, but where very little learning actually takes place. Thus, it is important that the instructor be actively engaged in the process and encourages students who stray from the learning goals of the course. Specifically, the authors recommend: (1) engaging students with subject matter, (2) accounting for attendance and participation, (3) working with students who do not participate, (4) understanding the signs of when a student is in trouble, and (5) building online communities that accommodate personal interaction. Indicators of a Successful Learning Community You can tell if the learning community is working when you see: active interaction, sharing of resources among students, collaborative learning evidenced by comments directed primarily student to student rather than student to instructor, socially constructed meaning evidenced by agreement or questioning, with the intent to achieve agreement on issues of meaning, and expressions of support and encouragement exchanged between students, as well as willingness to critically evaluate the work of others. Finally, they suggest that the keys to successful learning communities are honesty, responsiveness, relevance, respect, openness, and empowerment. Palloff, R.M. & Pratt, K. (1999). Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Algumas escolas pediram hoje mais técnicos para cuidarem dos equipamentos a instalar no próximo ano lectivo no âmbito do Plano Tecnológico da Educação (PTE). O pedido foi feito durante a primeira sessão de apresentação do PTE, em Castelo Branco, em que participaram 120 professores dos distritos da Guarda, Leira e Castelo Branco. Face a questões colocadas por docentes, o secretário de Estado da Educação, Valter Lemos, e João da Mata, coordenador do Plano, destacaram a criação de um Centro de Apoio Tecnológico às Escolas (CATE) para todo o país. Sempre que "for identificado um problema", basta ligar um determinado número de telefone para obter uma resposta, referiu João da Mata. Uma explicação que provocou alguma agitação na plateia.