My thoughts about being an innovative educator are eloquently expressed by a famous innovator, Albert Einsten. “Therefore it is by no means an idle game if we become practiced in analysing long-held commonplace concepts and showing the circumstances on which their justification and usefulness depend, and how they have grown up, individually, out of the givens of experience. Thus their excessive authority will be broken. They will be removed if they cannot be properly legitimated, corrected if their correlation with given things be far too superfluous, or replaced if a new system can be established that we prefer for whatever reason.” Albert Einstein To paraphrase this groundbreaking thinker, as innovators in the classroom, we should become practiced at analyzing our past and current practices. It is not a waste of time, an idle game, to examine the concepts under which we operate in education for their usefulness and correspondence to the reality of the human experience, particularly the student perspective. We must be able to justify our choices as teachers. If our practices are not resulting in deep learning, remove them. If we add too much superfluous material - too much and unnecessary, correct it. And when we find a new system that we prefer for good reason, replace the old with the new. Einstein does not say to throw the baby out with the bathwater. 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. Many of the educators on the forefront of the innovative education movement impress me with the depth of their considerations. At the moment, the thinking that most resonates with me and sums up my evolution in thought is George Couros, a modern innovator in education. He also does not advocate newness for newness’s sake. He defines innovation as being new AND better. He also does not insist that a digital tool must be included in an idea for it to be innovative. Of course, he does encourage the use of technology when it is a better, more efficient, more engaging, less expensive choice, and he particularly notes that technology gives us the ability to access information and learning that we could not previously access. Another advantage is the ability to connect to other people:for educators and students to share ideas and connect globally. One analogy Couros makes that speaks to me is that using social media to network with other teachers is like placing yourself into a stream of information and ideas. A deluge of ideas rush past you and you watch them stream by and use the ones that spark excitement, creativity, and innovation. Not all ideas are usable, not all ideas will “getcha”, some will need to be tweaked. But at least you’re in the path of innovation. Einstein and Couros also agree on another aspect of innovation. Concepts should be corrected if they are superfluous to the given thing. I’ll take our “given thing” to be setting up the ideal learning environment. 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. One of the powerful, thrilling opportunities for educators is the vast array of digital tools available to enrich our classrooms and our students’ learning. It can also be daunting. I felt what can only be described as relief when a go-getter innovator like Couros 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” (The Innovator’s Mindset). 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. Images are powerful tools. Often they speak more succinctly than words. So here’s the image of my thinking before this program. And here’s where I am now.
1 Comment
James
7/20/2017 05:27:40 pm
Nancy,
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December 2017
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