To Disrupt Education, First Shift the Balance of Power

This article was recommended by Aimee. 

She and I have talked about revolutionizing the system, but I've not a clue on accomplishing that goal. Not one clue. So, I'm walking a line between gung-ho revolutionary and deflated automaton.

Although I've Diigo-ed the link, I'm going to lift one chunk...

To disrupt education, focus on the products and services that shift power from institutions into the hands of individual students, parents, and teachers: online assessments that tell a student what she has learned and what she could learn next, knowledge maps that show how specific skills and understanding add up to expertise in a subject or field, guided tours that take a learner through the experiences that develop mastery of various subjects, collaboration platforms that support peer learning and peer standards of excellence, data collection engines that give learners deep insight into their learning: more, invent the tools and resources that give power to learners and to the teachers that guide, encourage, and inspire them in ways that have not yet been framed or considered. Ask yourself – does this product deeply support students in becoming independent learners and active agents?