Innovation in Education

                             Week 02: Section A

   Questions for you to consider:

   - What is required for real innovation in education?

   - How can these ideas be implemented in our public schools?

Required

​Part 1. Innovation in Education

Tony Wagner is the first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. Prior to this, he was the founder and co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for more than a decade. He is one of the leading experts in the world on innovation.

Please watch these two Tony Wagner presentations:

Tony Wagner mentioned several things worth considering.  He said there were seven critical skills that our students must learn in order to become innovators and creative problem solvers:

1. Critical thinking and problem solving (particularly, the ability to ask good questions)
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence                                                     
3. Agility and adaptability
4. Initiative and entrepreneurialism
5. Effective oral and written communication
6. Accessing and analyzing information
7. Curiosity and imagination - the bedrock for all of the above

Do you see a commonality between these points and what you've watched and listened to in Module 1? Tony Wagner also listed five ways that our traditional education must change in order to provide the kind of environment in our schools that fosters these skills:

1. Switch from individual performance to a collaborative one (accountable teamwork)
2. Education should be interdisciplinary - no silos (math silo, science silo, art silo, etc.)
3. Education should allow the student to create - empower students to learn, teachers become facilitators, mentors, coaches.
4. Failure is acceptable - even good.  Allow students to take risks.  Allow students to iterate, reflect, and retry.
5. Help students through play, passion, and purpose to become intrinsically motivated in their learning. Help them to give back, and make a difference!

Part 2. Strategies for Acquiring Technology

We believe one reason you see varying results in studies done about the effectiveness of using technology in education deals mainly with the educational strategies employed when implementing it.  In other words, it's not the tool that makes the difference, it's how the tool is used or put into practice! 

Whether you use paper worksheets to "drill and kill" or a computer program that does the same thing - the effectiveness will be about the same. The computer program may have more bells and whistles, but in the end, it's trying to achieve the same purpose as the "old fashioned" way of doing it. Later on, we will share several models of technology integration. In the SAMR model of technology integration, this example would be on the substitution level of integration. Technology is used to directly substitute for a traditional method of doing a task.

However, If technology is used in new ways that promote critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creative problem solving, then I feel the study results would be drastically different. How can we have our students be creators instead of just consumers of information? This would be a great research project!

Technology is only the tool, not the answer! The answer to teaching success is the way we educate, and how we use the tools and technologies we are given. Technology only plays a support role in the higher educational strategies being implemented.  

As educators, we have learned that the best procedure for implementing and integrating technology into our teaching works this way...

• First and most importantly: Students need to be engaged in relevant, meaningful experiences. Usually, this will be a practical problem needing to be solved. This is the motivator. This is the piece where you can implement the critical skills we've spoken about.  You need to ask yourself, "What experience do I want my students to have?"  "What can they participate in that would be meaningful, relevant, exciting, spark their curiosity, and allow them to be creative?"  "How can I really engage them in learning the required objectives I'm supposed to teach?" This is the hardest piece to design, but completely worth the effort.
  • Second:  Then embed activities that will allow students to achieve the content standards you are required to have them learn.  You also need to determine just how you will assess student competency in the skills and content. There are so many better ways to do this than having them take high-stakes, multiple-choice tests.
  • Third:  Search for, learn about, and acquire technology that will support you to accomplish the experience.  The technology you integrate could be for the students' benefit, or it could help you as the teacher! Technology purchased through this process will get used, and used well.

• In this course, we will be taking each of the internationally recognized technology in education standards and demonstrating some possible ways to integrate technology to achieve the standard.  You'll search for possible technology solutions for your particular field of study or your own curriculum specialty.  You will then have the opportunity to share what you've learned, and the tools you've discovered with the rest of the class, and with the world.  One benefit of this course is that you will have access to all the tools and ideas of the other students!  

  ​Just remember how much more important the first and second part of the strategy is, and incorporate those. The technology part only plays a supporting role in the first two. Technology can set the stage, but it's the powerful social interactions and enthusiasm for learning that really matter. The learning experience can be just as effective without technology. Add technology only if it has a clear benefit to you or your students.

  
  
• Expand Your Horizons

Pick at least one to read and explore.

Educational Communities Worth Joining:

1. Edutopia (Links to an external site.): A comprehensive website and online community that increases knowledge, sharing, and adoption of what works in K-12 education. They emphasize core strategies: project-based learning, comprehensive assessment, integrated studies, social and emotional learning, educational leadership and teacher development, and technology integration. This is a great community, and I'll share many of their resources with you during the course.
2. Makerspaces!: Cache Valley area students - would you like to get involved? Volunteer to help Cache Makers (Links to an external site.). Learn more about the maker movement! In the video "Makerspaces"  it describes places where people come to learn, tinker, and make things together. Makerspaces are a catalyst for social interactions that build communities and allow people to live happier, healthier, meaningful lives simply by connecting people.