To innovate, or to iterate, that is the question.

Many established organizations have struggled to embrace disruptive innovation, often sticking too long with incremental improvements to legacy systems rather than adopting transformative new technologies and business models. Kodak failed to adapt to the disruption of digital cameras, blockbuster was too slow to shift to online streaming, and ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft disrupted established taxi companies. It’s easy to think of our systems of education as behemoths built over centuries which only need to be tweaked to fit an ever-changing world, but are we focussing too much on iteration when we should be exploring innovation?

Education is facing what Clayton Christensen called “The Innovator's Dilemma”. While new technologies and pedagogies offer the potential for transformational improvements in student outcomes and engagement, the system as a whole resists significant change due to the barriers to rapidly adopting these innovations. Legacy systems, entrenched interests, and institutional inertia all conspire to favour iterating on existing approaches over pioneering new models. This not to say that innovation is not happening. Numerous potentially disruptive innovations have emerged in education, from online learning to competency-based progression to personalized adaptive learning platforms.

These innovations promise improved student outcomes, greater equity, and increased engagement by meeting diverse learner needs. However, established institutions face barriers to rapidly adopting such innovations and remain largely focused on an obsolete curriculum, high-stakes testing, and teacher training focused on traditional instructional models, widening an ever-growing skills gap.