Revealed: Why K - 12 Textbooks are going to TIP. And the new opportunity for newspapers.

You can get the argument in Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation WIll Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton Christensen (Author), Curtis W. Johnson (Author), Michael B. Horn. You can buy the hardcover at Amazon for $21.75 or the Kindle version for $18.12.

"As products and their markets mature, technology grows more sophisticated, as do customers. They begin to understand their unique needs and to insist on customized product. Technological maturity makes customization possible. Product and service arhitecture become more modular in this enivronment." Disrupting Class:

All the pieces for mass customization of Print product are now in place. Textbooks evolved in a world where customization was not possible. The textbook and education businesses are "value chain" commerce. The emerging model is "facilitated user network" commerce. "Value chain" and "facilitated user network" are from Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the World Learns.

Textbooks, embedded in value chain commerce start with the content. Content is produced by experts, approved by experts, mass produced and sold as "one-size- fits -as many as possible." Textbooklets embedded in facilitated user network commerce starts with the learner. The content lives in the Cloud, on websites, wiki's, blogs and other forms. Publishing happens when someone decides that form of the content is most appropriate for that learner at that time.

Many newspapers have experienced talented people to marshal facts, find the stories most relevant and tell those stories using just the right combination of words and pictures. Newspapers are built to accomplish those tasks, day after day, on deadline.

In the classroom, teachable moments occur and disappear in real time. The hard part of the teacher's job is to create an environment in which it is possible to predict when teachable moments will occur. The function of textbooklets is to help the teacher create those moments and have the material in place to make the most of them.

Versioned Print newspapers - textbooklets, instead of text books - could be delivered directly to classrooms. Edited from the point of view of the classroom teacher. It is a customized replay of My Weekly Reader , but for High School students and on steroids.