Innovation

I was very excited to see the topic of the opening panel at Educon, innovation. The opening panel is always a highlight of Educon, perhaps because of the venue or the brilliance on the stage that night. This year the contingent coming from my school is growing again (I was the only one at Educon 2.0 from my school, last year my coteacher joined me) and I have been talking Educon up to them, big time. The topic of innovation, the Franklin Institute, and the great minds on display should prove my contention that Educon is where its at. I digress...

This evening as I thinking forward to next weekend, I settled down and I did a quick google search on innovation. I started with the wikipedia page about innovation.

Innovation comes from the Latin innovationem, noun of action from innovare. The Etymology Dictionary further explains innovare as dating back to 1540 and stemming from the Latin innovatus, pp. of innovare "to renew or change," from in- "into" + novus "new".

Innovation can therefore be seen as the process that renews something that exists and not, as is commonly assumed, the introduction of something new.

As I continued my search, I found a great post that really made me think how I approach teaching.

“Just pretend you’re teaching you. How would you do that? What would you want to know? What did you dislike when you were taught? What stories would you tell to make it understandable? What would keep you interested and engaged?”

Should I really be thinking about myself as a learner as I design learning experiences?

Shortly after, I found another great post, this one by George Curos. Shockingly coincidental at I come across two posts with similar thoughts. Curos suggests that we need to ask ourselves, "Does this work for me?" as we design our classroom environment and experiences. Of course, we need to think of our students at the end of the day (Curos suggests this also), but I thought that this was an interesting approach to designing opportunities for my students.

So, in the spirit of innovation, I am going to try to renew my approach over the next couple of days and weeks. I am going to think about myself as a learner, with the hope of this reflecting being that my students get more.