Thoughts on Innovation

In preparation for a discussion about innovation in my district, I’ve been doing a little research on my own. After looking at lots of TED Talks including Stephen Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From, I decided that I needed to dive deeper. I stumbled on two books by Seth Godin that have made an impression – The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly and V is for Vulnerable (a picture book). V is for Vulnerable led me to the website for the illustrator, Hugh MacLeod, which led me to the graphic below and an interesting article called “How to be Creative.”

I felt a little like Alice going down the rabbit hole as I went deeper into the topic of innovation. You have to throw out a lot of your preconceived ideas in order to explore innovation. I’m going to take a while (the slow hunch) to think about creativity and the collision of ideas. When everyone starts doing something like redesigning work space, is that really innovation anymore? Do innovators always need to be one step ahead of things? Can you copy innovation? I don’t think so – I think you have to create and remix in order to be innovative. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and sharing our next steps.

What a Difference a Year Makes

 

I can’t believe that a year has passed since my district began rolling out devices for our 1:1 student computing initiative. One year down the road with around 17,000 student devices, and we’re now planning the third phase which will complete our 1:1 initiative for grades 3-12.

A recent topic of conversation on a webinar with other 1:1 districts was “what keeps you awake at night?” I’m happy to say that I’m sleeping again, and it’s because of all the great teamwork that’s gone into our implementation. In my October post I talked about scaling up and next steps. I’m happy to report that our technology leadership series has given administrators the tools that they need to begin taking 1:1 computing to the next level at their schools.

It’s exciting to go into schools and see students engaged in learning that is designed to incorporate technology tools and best instructional practices. Focusing on the Project RED key implementation factors has taken the spotlight off of devices and placed the spotlight on technology integration.

If you’re a teacher in a 1:1 classroom or an administrator in a school with 1:1 computing, visit the Project RED website and read Revolutionizing Education Through Technology. I think you’ll find that you sleep better at night.