Innovation

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10 Ways to Teach Innovation

April 1, 2013 | 8:00 AM | By
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By Thom Markham

One overriding challenge is now coming to the fore in public consciousness: We need to reinvent just about everything. Whether scientific advances, technology breakthroughs, new political and economic structures, environmental solutions, or an updated code of ethics for 21st century life, everything is in flux—and everything demands innovative, out of the box thinking.

The burden of reinvention, of course, falls on today’s generation of students. So it follows that education should focus on fostering innovation by putting curiosity, critical thinking, deep understanding, the rules and tools of inquiry, and creative brainstorming at the center of the curriculum.

This is hardly the case, as we know. In fact, innovation and the current classroom model most often operate as antagonists. The system is evolving, but not quickly enough to get young people ready for the new world. But I do believe there are a number of ways that teachers can bypass the system and offer students the tools and experiences that spur an innovative mindset. Here are ten ideas:

Move from projects to Project Based Learning. Most teachers have done projects, but the majority do not use the defined set of methods associated with high-quality PBL. These methods include developing a focused question, using solid, well crafted performance assessments, Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, creativity, Innovation, project-based-learning

How to Fuel the Innovation Engine in Learning

September 7, 2012 | 11:13 AM | By

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By Jennie Rose

Can creativity be taught? If innovation is truly the key to this country’s success, then it’s time to think strategically about engendering creativity into our education system.

That’s part of Tina Seelig’s thesis in her new book Ingenius: A Crash Course on Creativity. Case in point: In schools, when we give students math problems to solve, we ask simply, “What’s the sum of 10+10?” to which there is only one right answer. But Seelig says we should turn the question on its head, and ask, “How many ways can you add 10+10?” The question you ask is the frame in which the answers will fall, Seelig says.

This approach is fundamental to Seelig’s work as a professor at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. The Institute (or “d.school”), renowned for incubating inventive new businesses, is committed to teaching students about design thinking. And it’s in her course on creativity where Seelig introduces students to her celebrated Innovation Engine, which she says represents all the values we need to unlock creativity.

The Engine has six parallel lines in a Möbius strip design. Three internal human factors comprise our knowledge, imagination, and attitude.

As Seelig describes it:

  • Your knowledge provides the fuel for your imagination.
  • Your imagination is the catalyst for transforming knowledge into ideas.
  • Your attitude is the spark that sets the Innovation Engine in motion.

The other three lines include external influences of resources, habitat and culture.

  • Resources are all the assets available to you.
  • Habitat includes the space, rules, constraints, and people around you.
  • Culture is the collective beliefs, values, & behaviors of your community.

These inside and outside strips are woven together because nothing can be looked at in isolation. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, creativity, Failure, Innovation, Tina Seelig

Five Ways to Bring Innovation Into the Classroom

August 27, 2012 | 1:57 PM | By

For many schools across the country, today marks the first day of a new year. In addition to thinking about tools that help boost educators’ teaching practice, this moment might be a good time to pull back and think about some big-picture ideals, too. Here are a few to consider.

1.   INFUSE PASSION INTO LEARNING.

Nine Tenets of Passion-Based Learning. Educators who focus on integrating kids’ own interests and passions into the curriculum will see them flourish as learners. Educators can think about integrating such practices as showing relevance of what students are studying to life outside school, connecting with parents, and using digital media as a way to spark interests and spreading ideas.

2.   TRY SOMETHING NEW.

Jumping Into the 21st Century. For both veteran educators and newbies, the temptation to stick to what’s acceptable and what’s been done is hard to overcome. Educator Shelley Wright talks about how she took the plunge and redesigned the entire structure of her teaching practice. Her goal? “Changing to a student-centered, skill-based, technology embedded classroom,” she says.

3.   CONSIDER THE FLIPPED CLASSROOM MODEL. 

The Flip: Why I love It, How I Use It. Educator Shelley Wright shares why she’s decided to flip her classroom. “I don’t believe in assigning videos every night as a substitute for my own lecturing. To me, that’s simply the traditional classroom rearranged, not flipped. I use the flip when my students need to absorb a few chunks of new information to continue learning. I don’t use it to front-load information at the beginning of a unit. I think that can rob students of the experience of authentically building knowledge and skills as they encounter new Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, creativity, Innovation, passion-based learning

Does Our Current Education System Support Innovation?

July 17, 2012 | 10:48 AM | By

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By Aran Levasseur

Innovation is the currency of progress. In our world of seismic changes, innovation has become a holy grail that promises to shepherd us through these uncertain and challenging times. And there isn’t a more visible symbol of innovation than the iPad. It’s captured the hearts and minds of disparate subcultures and organizations.

In education it’s been widely hailed as a revolutionary device, promising to transform education as we know it. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as bulk purchasing iPads and deploying them into the wilds of education. Innovation can’t be installed. It has to be grown — and generally from the margins.

The profusion of digital technology at work, home and everywhere in between is evident to even the most causal observer. In this climate, it’s understandable why many schools are interested in technological integration and innovation. While it seems clear that students will increasingly be expected to be adept at using digital tools in their professional and personal lives, there isn’t great clarity on how exactly these tools should be used. Often visions and goals are nebulous — if they exist at all. We can’t just buy iPads (or any device), add water, and hope that strategy will usher schools to the leading edge of 21st century education. Technology, by itself, isn’t curative. Human agency shapes the path.

We can’t just buy iPads (or any device), add water, and hope that strategy will usher schools to the leading edge of 21st century education.

In light of this dynamic, two critical questions need to be asked and provisionally answered when integrating technology into education. The first question, while obvious at first glance, isn’t always fully articulated: “What are the educational goals of technology integration?”

The second question is equally important and often more elusive: “Do the current systems and processes support the integrative and innovative goals?”

Adapting Teaching To Technology

The answer to the first question — about the goals of technology integration — often orbits around 21st century skills. The problem is that most of the curriculum within schools today is distinctly tied to the 20th century. The first phase of technology integration usually focuses on the transition from an analog to a digital environment, but after that happens, the use of technology raises deeper Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, 21st-century-skills, Failure, Innovation, iPad

The Big Ideas Fest Pushes for Progress

November 5, 2010 | 2:00 PM | By

Creative thinkers and innovators will gather next month in Half Moon Bay to brainstorm and implement progressive ideas in education at the Big Ideas Fest.

In groups called Action Collabs, they’ll tackle big-picture questions like how to help teachers influence and have impact on learners, how to create opportunities to learn for students who are pushed out of formal education space, and how to create alternatives for certification as a way to expand education and career opportunities.

Some of the scheduled speakers include Sugata Mitra, professor of education technology at Newcastle University, who installed an Internet-connected PC in a New Delhi slum and watched how kids learned how to use it on their own and to teach each other; Stephen Breslin of Futurelab, a U.K.-based nonprofit that finds innovative uses of technology to support systemic change in education; and Christopher Rush, of New York’s School of One, which has revolutionized the traditional classroom model.

Participants will also have access to hands-on workshops that demonstrate how to use technologies in the classroom, organized by KQED’s Education Network.

Big Ideas Fest, held Dec.5-8 at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, is organized by ISKME, the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, a research institute that develops research-based innovations, and facilitates field building to improve knowledge sharing.

MindShift will be there to cover the event and is honored to co-sponsor the Media Lounge, where participants attendees can share their ideas through multimedia platforms. Look forward to seeing you there!

FILED UNDER: Big Ideas Fest, Innovation, ISKME

High Schoolers Challenged to Try Design Thinking

November 1, 2010 | 2:48 PM | By

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Notebook funds charity

Design thinking is not just for professional designers. Anyone, including high school students, can find a way to apply creative problem-solving skills to important social problems.

And that’s the point of School: By Design, as reported by Good’s Allison Arieff.  The youth-mentoring program, initatied by Design Ignites Change challenges high-schoolers in underserved communities to redesign their schools with the help of college or professional design mentors.

Their objective is to design a sustainable school — but with an expanded definition of the word “sustainable.”  “In this program, ‘sustainability’ will extend beyond customary notions of green design and eco-friendliness, to the more meaningful aspects of cultural, social and economic sustainability,” the site explains.

The winning high school wins $10,000 to be implemented toward their dream school. Deadline for registration is Dec. 31, 2010.

Those who want to help fund the prize can invest in this notebook, created by Mohawk Loop, which will donate 100% of the proceeds to the program.

FILED UNDER: design thinking, High School, Innovation, K-12 education