“Innovation is the currency of progress. And there isn’t a more visible symbol of innovation than the iPad.”

It’s not “just add water”
The profusion of digital technology at work, home and everywhere in between is evident to even the most causal observer.

While it seems clear that students will increasingly be expected to be adept at using digital tools in their professional and personal lives, there isn’t great clarity on how exactly these tools should be used.

We can’t just buy iPads (or any device), add water, and hope that strategy will usher schools to the leading edge of 21st century education. Technology, by itself, isn’t curative. Human agency shapes the path.

“What are the educational goals of technology integration?”

“Do the current systems and processes support the integrative and innovative goals?”

Adapting Teaching To Technology
The answer to the first question — about the goals of technology integration — often orbits around 21st century skills. The problem is that most of the curriculum within schools today is distinctly tied to the 20th century. The first phase of technology integration usually focuses on the transition from an analog to a digital environment, but after that happens, the use of technology raises deeper pedagogical questions.

While the industrial revolution has been added to the annals of history, our system of education has not.

The social and economic world of today and tomorrow require people who can critically and creatively work in teams to solve problems. Technology widens the spectrum of how individuals and teams can access, construct and communicate knowledge. Education, for the most part, isn’t creating learners along these lines.

Meanwhile, computers are challenging the legitimacy of expert-driven knowledge, i.e., of the teacher at the front of the classroom being the authority.
All computing devices are dismantling knowledge silos and are therefore transforming the role of a teacher into something that is more of a facilitator and coach.

But what it means to be a teacher and student is changing — as it has throughout history. The main point is that technology is helping to drive a pedagogical change, and schools need to be mindful of this influence and thoughtful of how they’d like to facilitate this transition.
This is why linking technology to learning objectives is so important. Otherwise, schools could find themselves in a position where the cart (technology) is before the horse (pedagogy).

Does our current system support innovation ?
The organization of schools — their systems, processes and values — were deliberately designed to accomplish specific objectives. Departments, 50-minute classes, bells, rows of desks, lectures, textbooks, standardized tests, and grades are all aspects of schools’ organizational structure that were conceived to train students in the image of industrial society. Within this model, standardization and mass production rule supreme.*

Innovation, whether it’s with technology, assessment or instruction, requires time and space for experimentation and a high tolerance for uncertainty.
We like the fruits of innovation, but few of us have the mettle to run the gauntlet of innovation.

*to go further on this subject, take a look (READ !) to Seth Godin’s last book : Stop stealing dreams.

Innovation from the margins
Because integration and innovation with technology can be so disruptive to established systems, innovation is more likely to take root if it is grown on the margins. The margin can be a small percentage of class time that’s carved out each week for experimentation, or it can be a technology incubator designed to function beyond the conventional boundaries of school systems.

Learning environments of the future are in incubation. And therein lies the challenge: Learning environments that don’t exist can’t be analyzed. Moving into the unknown requires a pioneering spirit.

Comments

“Your insights are spot-on. As a teacher, I’ve seen little evidence in the school system where I work that tech. integration is at all related to innovation. Many administrators and teachers see technology as a potential engagement tool first, overlooking the inherent value or lack of value of the tool.”
Link to : Why Twitter and Facebook Are Not Good Instructional Tools
by Paul Barnwell

“checklist I use to help anticipate organizational readiness to benefit from technology.”
Link to : Consulting with executives to turn technology investments into results
by Allison Rossett

” It was also very frustrating to witness the SLOW paces of the school corporations (and still are to an extent) to understand technology products, embrace, acquire and then integrate these fabulously more efficient AND motivating tools into the curriculum.
[…] I found that on a regular basis, if the school corp. Superintendent was NOT technologically savvy, then the whole school corporation suffered because of that “mindset” does the “trickledown” into the administration, staff….the kids. Which means that kids are not getting exposed to methods of going about “life” in the real world, with the tools they will encounter and possibly lead to motivations into certain careers… “
by jereid

” But if engagement is the only technology strategy then it seems to me that we aren’t utilizing the potential of digital technology in education.”
by Aran Levasseur

Link to “no-cost ebooks on Flipped Teaching, integrating technology in the classroom, and student learning styles to see if 21st Century Learning is right for you”
by Shannon

Final words by Aran Levasseur
“ We seem to resonate with change on an abstract level but have an aversion to it on a personal level. Cultivating innovation isn’t easy because it necessitates doing things differently. Which means change. But if it can be cultivated on the edge and delivered in micro dosages then it isn’t as threatening.”

Source
Photo of the iPads in the classroom by Lexie Flickinger and used here with Creative Commons license.