Michael Horn

Houston A+ Challenge and about 150 local educators, community and business leaders welcomed Michael Horn to the University of Houston Hilton for a free, public lecture on his new book, "Disrupting Class."

• Watch the seminar on video (below)
• Read notes from the event
• PowerPoint from public lecture
• PowerPoint from A+ Academy seminar

The future is now. Class is in session. According to recent studies in neuroscience, the way we learn doesn’t always match up with the way we are taught. If we hope to stay competitive - academically, economically, and technologically - we need to rethink our understanding of intelligence, reevaluate our educational system, and reinvigorate our commitment to learning. In other words, we need “disruptive innovation.”

Talking to school administrators, government officials, business leaders, parents, teachers, and entrepreneurs, Horn shared surprising new ideas, outside-the-box strategies, and straight-A success storie, including how:

• Customized learning will help many more students succeed in school
• Student-centric classrooms will increase the demand for new technology
• Computers must be disruptively deployed to every student
• Disruptive innovation can circumvent roadblocks that have prevented other attempts at school reform
• We can compete in the global classroom - and get ahead in the global market

MICHAEL B. HORN is the co-founder and Executive Director, Education of Innosight Institute, a non-profit think tank devoted to applying the theory of disruptive innovation to develop solutions to problems in the social sector. A graduate of Harvard Business School, he contributed research for Barbara Kellerman’s 2004 release, Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters, and Charles Ellis’ book, Joe Wilson and the Creation of Xerox. Horn has been the featured speaker at numerous education conferences, including the National Evaluation Systems’ conference and the Grantmakers for Education Conference. Prior to business school, he worked in the world of politics and public policy, as he served as David Gergen’s research assistant. Horn graduated from Yale University with distinction in History.