Essentials Magazine Essentials Fall 2018 | Page 14

the
FUTURE
of
School Design
BY MICHAEL B. HORN
T
he steady march of disruptive innovation is growing
louder in K–12 schools across America. It is intro-
ducing new learning designs — powered by blend-
ed-learning models, which mix brick-and-mortar schools
with online learning where each student has some control
over the time, place, path, and pace of their learning —
to upend the traditional classroom. The most disruptive
of these models invite us to rethink the use of time and
space in learning along several dimensions, including per-
sonalization, access and equity, and productivity.
Ultimately these new models could allow all students to build
their passion and fulfill their unique human potential — some-
thing today’s schools do not do. But for this to happen, we will
need to rethink the physical design of schools themselves.
Legacy schools
Today’s schools were built based on a factory model of school-
ing in which students proceed in lockstep through school based on
14 essentials | fall 2018