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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
1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
5. CONCLUSIONS
4. A SOLUTION
1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
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
but
they address the very core of what already exists
1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
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
1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
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
1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
But as they gain strength in the realm of non-competition
DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION
they evolve very fast
and end up replacing the traditional solutions
1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION
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.
1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION
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
1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
5. CONCLUSIONS
4. A SOLUTION
3. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
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
3. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
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
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
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
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
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
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
• 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:
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
• 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
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
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
1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
5. CONCLUSIONS
4. A SOLUTION
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
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
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
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
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
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
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
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
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
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:
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
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
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
Otherwise
they fail
and that’s what we witness most of the time
and leave no lasting effects
HOW CAN WE IMPROVE THIS SCENARIO?
1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
5. CONCLUSIONS
4. A SOLUTION
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
1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
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
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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
My Webpage:
adfig.com