Innovation In Education

What is your favorite, dramatic, uplifting “school” movie?  Is it the one about the young teacher who goes into a group of underprivileged students and shows them how to learn in a way that’s meaningful to them?  Or maybe it’s the movie with the stranger who teaches students to use tools they didn’t know they had like dance, martial arts, or painting to find in-roads to learning.  Ok…so you probably realize that I just gave the basic plot for most every school-based drama in the past 100 years!

(Notice I said drama – while I enjoy the work of Belushi & Farley, those comedies are another blog – probably one about togas.  And movies about school sports don’t qualify this week either.  By the way, what’s the best school sports movie?  If you said Hoosiers, give yourself an A+)

So who is ready to fix education?  I know I am.  Unfortunately, I don’t get to waive my magic wand anytime soon.  But I strongly believe one road to fixing education is along the path of innovation.  Let’s start planting the seeds of creativity and innovation and see what springs up!

A Youth Movement: How many educators have been at it for more than 20 years?  Too many, right?  Whether it’s that high school biology teacher who taught you, your brother, AND your mom or the college professor who has had tenure longer than you’ve had a driver’s license, some teachers have been through enough changes to beat the fight out of anyone!  I’ll be the first to admit that MOST (not all) innovative ideas come out of youth.  You could argue it’s naivety, but often it’s that lack of “understanding” (read: cynicism) that is what propels someone forward down a path of originality. 

It’s hard for me to write this.  I’m not “young” anymore.  I stopped getting looks from teenage girls when I was still a teenager!  But I will admit as a new father, while I love the wisdom and security that comes with being an almost-40 dad, I sure would like a few less aches & pains and a bit more energy.  Our young teachers with ideas based on their RECENT experiences and new theories in educational thinking should be given a shot here.  Teachers who embrace technology, new ways of thinking about assessment, and who connect with students in a paradigm-breaking new way should be allowed to innovate within our educational walls. 

Old Dogs / New Tricks: But innovation isn’t just for the young.  While there may be less creativity and passion for change in seasoned veterans, that doesn’t mean we’re dead!  Some of the most innovative professors I meet are older than I am and loving the “revolution” (that’s what they call it) of technology based education.  They’re the ones who have longitudinal data to suggest ways to bridge major educational concepts like variance, curriculum integration, and collaboration. 

I will point out that much of this innovation can (and should) come from OUTSIDE the education community.  The ideas for new thought and creative process would often be best served by people who haven’t been indoctrinated already.  Disrupting Class is a great example here – some non-academics used business technology and assessment to identify areas of change and need in classrooms.  Brilliant.  Where else could education get a boost?  Imagine how scientists could change science curriculum to be more interesting and more practical?  What about a Chief Operations Officer teaching business process to Freshman?  (Andy…you know you should do this…)  Or what about professional speakers changing how communication is taught in public speaking classes? 

It’s time for a change.  This of course means it’s time to put our money where our mouth is.  Put out the call and have people compete for creative, innovative ideas with the goal being real money, real schools, and real kids.  And by all means don’t blow it with a judging committee of old school educators!  We’re talking about challenging the norms here!  We don’t need anyone with terminal PP (paradigm paralysis) clogging up the works.  While it will be important to monitor closely and I’m certainly not suggesting a blank check with no measures or objectives – but let’s not stop the process before it even starts.  Get a healthy mix of experts, radicals, conservatives, parents, students, and non-educator types to help pick a winner. 

Let’s jump start a new paradigm in teaching.  Can you imagine 1 of these programs per state?  Let’s say that 10% work (although I’d bet on more than that).  Now we have 5 strong models to look at for adoption in other areas.  If we had this contest every year, we’d eventually have a generation of learners having been touched by some form of innovation. 

And now that I have a 2 year old…I want her to get the results of that innovation.  Here’s to a world of change Addie girl.  I hope we can embrace it for you.

Want to hear more about online education?  Interested in real solutions to cheating and plagiarism?  Contact Jeff at jborden@jeffpresents.com for more information!

The Future of Social Networking

So a few weeks back (pre-Christmas) I wrote about what the “future” of education might be, with a dash of iPod wishing thrown in for good measure!  (I’m still waiting for my email from Steve Jobs…)  But, I got a number of emails regarding this vision of things to come, asking about my take on other stuff. I must admit, creating the vision of the future is fun…mental gymnastics as it may be, but fun all the same. One of the requests surrounded social networks. You know, Web 2.0 stuff.

I genuinely like talking about Web 2.0.  I realize for some it’s already old news, but in the education circles I work with, it’s pretty high tech.  (If we can only get teachers to see that Web 2.0 is SO much bigger than wikis and blogs…)  But the power and flexibility the tools offer is pretty impressive.  I like that they offer new opportunities for learners to take more control of their learning and access their own customized information, resources, tools and services.  I think it’s great that they encourage a wider range of expressive capability.  How great that they help facilitate more collaborative ways of working, community creation, dialogue and knowledge sharing.  And ultimately, I appreciate social networking tools ability to furnish a setting for learner achievements to attract an authentic audience.

So what will these tools look like in the future?  Well, I think the Open Source movement will help pave some of the way.  First, I would be surprised if the tools we use today don’t talk to each other, allowing us to have multiple tools sharing content and alerts with each other.  Websites like Ning are starting to get towards this notion, but instead of the feeds all coming from the same website, they would all talk together.  Essentially, you’d have a page of widgets that held all of your good stuff! 

Second, these interoperable talking points would be smarter.  It would become easier to share them in all the appropriate spots.  For example, if I were to write a killer book (or Kindle) review of “Disrupting Class” (which I will do soon…) on my blog, that would be great for the 500 or 1000 people who read it.  BUT, wouldn’t it serve everyone better if it were on Amazon’s site?  My subscription to Twitter could be used to tell me where to check the full articles and my wiki might get picked up on Digg where it would do more good for the collective!

Lastly, (I know that there will be a lot more cool stuff than three things, but I’m pacing myself…) I would bet that these networks talking to each other would will be even more useful as the mobile world explodes.  You can already see the impact as the iPhone’s apps and Windows Mobile stream more and more rss elements.  But imagine this:  I’m a blogger who writes a blog about how I love ice cream.  I also happen to have a GPS phone that sends me my daily reads from Fark while telling my friends on Loopt where I am and what I’m doing.  But, since my coffee blog was tagged by Web 3.0 (the Semantic Web), it’s now associating me with ice cream.   So one day I’m walking down 16^th Street Mall in Denver when I get a text message.  It’s a buy one get one free coupon for the new ice cream shoppe that just went in about a block away.  Will I use it?  Of course I will!!!  Will I thank technology for the great coupon and introduction?  Of course I will!!!  Will I enjoy their delicious vanilla based ice cream with peanut butter ribbon, fudge ribbon, peanut butter candy, and chocolate chunks?  What do you think?  (You’re welcome Ben & Jerry…can you call it PB & Jeff?)

Want to hear more about the future of technology?  Want to tie it to education, productivity, or industry for your group?  Contact jborden@jeffpresents.com immediately!