Innovating in Education, Educating for Innovation

transcript

Innovating in Education,

Educating for Innovation

OCTOBER 15, 2009

The European School 2.0 – The seventh EDEN Open Classroom ConferenceEDEN – European Distance and E-Leaning Network

How can we incubate creativity?

How can we develop in our children the capacity for innovation?

After more than 25 years of experience in the use of technologies in education

why have we progressed so little

in developing creativity and innovation in our schools?

1. TYPES OF INNOVATION

2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION

3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION

5. CONCLUSIONS

4. A SOLUTION

5. CONCLUSIONS

4. A SOLUTION

If we mix them up,innovation doesn’t happen

incremental innovationdisruptive innovation

Two radically different types of innovation:

Incremental innovations build on existing thinking, products, processes,

organizations, or social systems

INCREMENTAL INNOVATION

They can be routine improvements or they can be dramatic breakthroughs

they address the very core of what already exists

INCREMENTAL INNOVATION

• Airplanes that fly farther

• Batteries that last longer

• Televisions with clearer images

• Computers that process faster

Examples of incremental innovations:

• Schools where students learn better by regularly using the Net

Disruptive innovations are addressed to people who do not have any solutions

DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION

They take root in simple, undemanding applications that are not breakthrough

People are happy to use them, in spite of their limitations, because no other solutions exist

They do not compete with anything

But as they gain strength in the realm of non-competition

they evolve very fast

and end up replacing the traditional solutions

The personal computer is an example of a disruptive innovation

The first personal computers (like the Spectrum and the Apple II) were ridiculously limited,

and completely out of that market.

An example of disruptive innovation:

In the 1970s the professional computer market was occupiedby 100,000 € minicomputers produced by Digital

Equipment Corporation (DEC), Data General and HP.

But they quickly grew up, in this unexplored market

Ten years later, in the 1980s, they were much more powerful, and starting to erode the minicomputer market

Twenty years later, in the 1990s, the minicomputer market collapsed in favour of the PC market

They were supposed to be used mainly as toys by children and their parents.

DEC and Data General don’t exist any more

5. CONCLUSIONS

4. A SOLUTION

educational systems are networks of actors

that reinforce each other into stable configurations

From the point of view of the sociology of innovation

These stable configurations tend to prevent change

it is impossible to produce innovations with lasting effects

the inertia of the system dilutes or distorts the innovations

Some experts in innovation claim that in such conservative echo-systems

and converts them to the reigning uniformity

It is like pouring water in the desert

Incremental innovation in educational systems has

a high failure rate

but it can be explored

I don’t share this radical view

if sound innovation strategies are crafted and managed

relying on dependable social theories,

Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005

such as Actor-Network-Theory

The promising path to innovation in the educational systems is

through disruptive innovation

that quietly grows in the margins of the system, unobtrusively

until it starts changing it, irreversibly

McGraw-Hill, New York, 2008

Clayton M. Christensen is an inspiring author on this topic

• Courses provided on-line to a region or a whole country, namely:

• courses for gifted students• enrichment classes for

special-needs children• optional courses in the languages,

arts, humanities, economics • distant support to homebound

and home-schooled students• private tutoring

Examples of disruptive innovations in the school systems:

• Pilot schools trying out new school models

• Special schools for students wishing to follow project-based learning

• Experimental schools aimed at changing transformationally the degraded social

communities to which they belong

These are examples of opportunities for disruptive innovation that don’t clash against

the mainstream educational echo-system

In this way, innovation can incubate at leisure until it

matures up to a level where it can be transposed to the

mainstream system

5. CONCLUSIONS

4. A SOLUTION

Educating a creative and innovative generation requires other concerns

besides those related to language, maths and science

Ten years ago, in the early days of the Blair government, a commission led

by Sir Ken Robinson produced

Educating a creative and innovative generation requires other concerns

besides those related to language, maths and science

Ten years ago, in the early days of the Blair government, a commission led

by Sir Ken Robinson produced

NACCCE, UK, 1999

a 240-page report on how to make progress in the creative and cultural

development of young people

Unfortunately, the report has been ignored since then

Last May, the BBC celebrated the 10th anniversary of its neglect

Studies and research reports keep being produced all over the world

insisting, for instance, on the importance of the epistemologies of

Design and of the Visual ArtsArts Council England, UK, December 2008

The formative role of the engineering paradigms are also being stressed

National Academy of Science, USA, 2009

namely in the United States

The distinct epistemologies of science and engineering

“science explains what exists”“engineering creates what never existed”

and their complementary roles in education have been stressed

Very innovative experiments, engaging thousands of

teachers, are under way

Yale University Press, 2008

such as those conducted by Kieran Egan’s Imaginative

Education Research Group (IERG)

But they all have one thing in common:

If they remain at the margins of the conventional educational echo-system

they succeed

following a disruptive path

or if they are based on very cautious, strategically

managed, incremental innovation

and produce lasting effects

Otherwise

they fail

and that’s what we witness most of the time

and leave no lasting effects

HOW CAN WE IMPROVE THIS SCENARIO?

5. CONCLUSIONS

4. A SOLUTION

How can we set up an organic, reflective follow-up process,

Who teaches who?

that analyses difficulties, assesses consequences, and

clarifies how to progress?

STILL ONE PROBLEM:

In a world that keeps changing, who knows how to progress?

4. A SOLUTION

MY ANSWER:

By establishing lasting partnerships between research units and school communities

in a reflection about how school curricula and pedagogical practices

can evolve in this changing world

around action-research and design-research projects conducted by mixed teams of

academic researchers and school teachers

4. A SOLUTION

These projects should be financially supported and assessed on the basis

of their contribution to sustained:

• enhancement of didactical approaches

• system innovation and cultural change

• improvement of educational practices

4. A SOLUTION

The national and international publication and presentation of the results of these

projects, by members of the mixed teams

and the dialogue and mutual help:

strengthens sustained reflective practices

and further mobilizes all the parts

• face-to-face (at conferences)• at a distance (in social networks)

4. A SOLUTION

These projects also provide:

• opportunities for MScs and PhDs “in the field”

• “authentic” opportunities for teacher assessment

• contextual alternatives to teacher training

5. CONCLUSIONS

4. A SOLUTION

6. CONCLUSIONS

If we want lasting innovation in the educational systems and our children to be more creative and innovative

we need to reinforce our emphasis on disruptive innovation projects

These should be action-research and design-based research projects

conducted by mixed teams of school teachers and academic researchers22

Innovating in Education,

Educating for Innovation

OCTOBER 15, 2009

The European School 2.0 – The seventh EDEN Open Classroom ConferenceEDEN – European Distance and E-Leaning Network

THE ENDThe slides will be available at:http://www.slideshare.net/adfigueiredo

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adfig.com