When I began the journey through the Innovative Learning program, I have to admit I was a bit skeptical - I had a preconceived notion that most people who bandied about the word “innovative” were jumping on a bandwagon of glittery newness simply for the sake of the novelty of the strategy or the cool factor of the technology. After being in the trenches for a couple decades, I’ve seen many fads come and go. What began as the latest greatest idea was, a few years later, proven to be poor practice. Then a few more years down the road, that same idea came full circle again, refurbished a bit, rebranded, and “voila!”, suddenly it was the thing to do again. I entered determined not to follow blindly a new trend unless I was thoroughly satisfied that the philosophy, concept, and practice would truly benefit my students. I can say with satisfaction, at the end of this journey, that the new skills, tools, and theories of innovative education that I’ve embraced will be necessary and effective practices for sound pedagogy. One of the powerful, thrilling opportunities for educators is the vast array of digital tools available to enrich our classrooms and our students’ learning. This semester we’ve learned the technical aspects of designing logos, videos, and posters. Along with learning these discrete tools we’ve explored the theories of aesthetic design and marketing. I find that I am walking away with a heightened appreciation for the visual effect on humans. Properly designed and well placed images have an emotional and cognitive effect on the viewer that can improve the receptive faculty of the audience. Images attached to information also improves memory and recall abilities. All of this ultimately increases the learning - an important and desirable result for teachers. As a learner in this program, and one who comes to the table not having grown up in the digital age, I appreciate the idea of focusing on the necessary, essential elements first and growing from there - especially when it comes to infusing digital tools into my repertoire. Acquiring new digital skills and becoming proficient can be daunting. At some point in the year of this program, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with the learning curve when I read something that made me feel what can only be described as relief. When a go-getter innovator like George Couros, author of The Innovator’s Mindset, says in his chapter on professional growth for teachers, “If we aren’t intentional, we may promote confusion and burnout, instead of inspiring innovation and deep learning”. His advice is to focus on a few new ideas and practices at a time. Achieve mastery and then add more digital tools to your arsenal. Growth is important as an end goal, but it does not have to happen all at once. A good lesson for us as learners... and as teachers!
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Nancy JaminetArchives
December 2017
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