What is Innovation.

My experience within the area of teaching is where I would like to focus on this area, what have I experienced that is innovative over the past 15 years.

The introduction of many learning technologies that have included:-

•     Powerpoint and multimedia
•     Social communications 
•     Touch screen interfaces and whiteboards
•     Electronic testing and marking
•     3D virtual worlds and graphics    

I guess for me innovation means using modern technologies in the classroom for the better of the student learning experience. If you get it right there is a certain buzz in the classroom and good results naturally follow.

Rich, M. and Holtham, C. (2005). The innovation was taking what was a new technology and adding it to the general makeup of the course. The use of email within a face to face training environment, can you believe this was seen as innovation now its taken for granted that email is available when learning.
Lück, M. and Laurence, G.M. (2005).The addition of video conferencing was technically more challenging and indeed even now it creates challenges for students and their systems there is a such a wide range of platforms and limitations as a result make it inevitable that some learners will not be able to see videos easily. In this example it was seen as a change and valuable addition to the course and certainly seen by students as a useful addition to the course. It was mean't to enhance F2F not replace it.
Generally innovation brings increased productivity and with it increased profits, this is not always the case but it is safe to say that innovation generates interest albeit in some cases only for a short time. It is important that new ideas are generated and experimented with after all many technological leaps have come about because the ideas of an individual have been shared and developed by someone else.

I teach in a College my students are being paid to be there and generally want to be there. Yes a strange but true notion. I have a captive audience but students of today want more and want to do less. They don't see the point of exams, would prefer to do an assignment or project, they struggle to see the need to memorise something that is just a few clicks away.

I see innovation in my place of work as trying to embrace the modern student and improve the learning experience but I am surrounded by some dinasours who still think that using a 10 year old viewfoil is acceptable. Over the years I have developed web sites and supportive material to help the students but let me share a frustration with you.

I spent ten years developing a DVD with all my lessons on and resources which I used to issue students the content is in web format and therefore accessible I have been working in the cloud for years too. Due to security measures put in place all PCs in the college are now locked down, no USB access no DVDs and the internet is filtered to stop me having access to web 2.0 apps and 'Cloud Working', The college put in place a Moodle VLE and have basically left use to get on with it. No training, no guidance and so I now have to consider moving all my lessons into this environment.

Whilst I welcome Innovation, its needs to be considered as part of the whole picture. I am certainly an activist trying to address this issue but in the meantime its all a bit frustrating.

Reflection 

Reading what most contributors made of this theme it was clear the most thought that innovation is good it as long at it improves the learning experience. Time is seen as the enemy many educators are already overburdened with bureaucracy and forms and just do not have the time to implement new ideas. It is not until demonstrations of the real benefits are seen that the additional effort can be seen as worthwhile.

We live in an innovative world the transistor was invented just over fifty years ago and all this technology has come about as a result, scary, its no wonder some cannot keep pace with the developments let alone any new innovations as they come along.

There is also a clear goal for an educator, 'educate', 'inspire' and 'enthuse' the student, enable their creativity and help them find what they aspire to. Can this be possible without innovation, of course, as has been pointed out many talented teachers can inspire their class with good teaching and many talented innovators can overdo the the technology at the expense of the teaching.

References
Lück, M. and Laurence, G.M. (2005) ‘Innovative teaching: sharing expertise through videoconferencing’, Innovate, vol.2, no.1 [online]http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=59 (Accessed 6 November 2007).
Rich, M. and Holtham, C. (2005) ‘New technology in learning: a decade’s experience in a business school’, British Journal of Educational Technology – Special Issue on Innovation in Elearning, vol.36, no.4, pp.677–679; also available online athttp://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2005.00545.x (Accessed 6 November 2007).