Where the resistance lise!

It's hilarious when you think about it: technology is touted as being one of the key drivers of change, but those people sitting on power over how we use IT in companies and administrations are some of the least capable of embracing change.

(Alan) There is a tendency to write off email as not being important because it is not "state-of-the-art"

(Alan) There is a tendency to write off email as not being important because it is not "state-of-the-art", but it is extremely important in the dynamic of exchange and the development of new ideas. As this article indicates, emailing activity is an indication of the extent of individual networks and the size and richness of that network correlates with impact in research and innovation.

(Alan) This article about how to make good presentations might be useful in preparing the presentation of the policy soution for the end of the P2V visit to Barcelona.

About the evaluation framework emerging from the P2V inspectors strand that can be used in evaluation and self-evaluation of shcools and their use of ICT.

[Alan's comments] A long article about development and tendencies in e-learning ... Downes coins the (unfortunate) term e-learning2.0  ...

A talk by a specialist in teacher training about the impact of Web 2.0 on education. For those already interested in change in education thanks to ICT, this may bring little new. When are people going to go beyond statements about how things are radically changing to what we are going to do about it?

The Schools for Innovation and Excellence initiative commenced in 2003 and supports primary and secondary schools to work closely together in clusters over three years to deliver innovation and excellence in Victorian education. Clusters receive funding to develop strategically effective education programs to advance student learning. From 2005, every Victorian government school will be in a cluster, with a total of 247 clusters in operation.

The "innovation" high schools provide more support for students and more positive learning environments than the city's other high schools

Details of the new Finnish Innovation Strategy which is not just about education but mainly about entrepreneurship and industry.

In the page about implementation of the strategy it pleads for a holistic apporach to policy-making about innovation: "The key recommendations of the national innovation strategy will apply to the co-ordination of a broad-based innovation policy at the government level, and especially the co-ordination of the implementation of sector-specific development and innovation programmes. The objective of intensified co-ordination is to increase synergies between policy sectors in the promotion of innovations and to accelerate innovation activities especially in the public sector. The strategy will also outline how to promote the preconditions of Finnish enterprises and entrepreneurs in a comprehensive way."

This article advocates a future without traditional boundaries between work and home and learning. Although effectively such a relaxing of boundaries is under way, we must also think that boundaries are what makes sense fo the world.
See my article about "Open sourcing ideas: a hacker approach to learning working and writing."

This article advocates a future without traditional boundaries between work and home and learning. Although effectively such a relaxing of boundaries is under way, we must also think that boundaries are what makes sense of the world.
See my article about "Open sourcing ideas: a hacker approach to learning working and writing."

transforming the way people learn through innovative technology and practice

The Futurlab site contains sections about projects: - the innovate award scheme; - the Models of Innovation project investigating conditions and strategies to support innovation in the design and development of digital learning resources; - teachers as innovators in teaching and learning with digital resources; - Why don't you? .. a porject about providing tested new tools and approaches that could be used to try something in a new way ... and available resources (reports; handbooks; articles,...)

An amusing talk by Sir Ken Robinson about creativity in education and how education pushes creativity out of children.

For memory, here is the description of the issue.

Catalonia is currently facing a number of major challenges related to immigration, cultural identity, transformations in economic activities and changes in social structures, especially the family.

School is seen as a key player in responding to these changes. However, a number of studies indicate that performance of the Catalonian school system in terms of exam results is insufficient and there is considerable concern amongst the general public about the efficiency of schools. Methodological changes are needed if schools are to respond to these challenges. Such innovative changes include fostering collaborative working, developing flexibility and supporting creativity.

The Catalonian issue to be worked on during the P2V seminar in February 2008 is *to create the right conditions to support and spread pedagogical and managerial innovation in schools using ICT*. Two aspects are singled out. First the need to find ways and means to encourage innovation on the part of teachers. And second, the need to foster a whole school approach to innovation, particularly in secondary schools (12 - 16 year olds).

> About which innovation in schools we are thinking?

Here are some ideas as a contribution to the begining of a possible list:

- Innovation in the way the schools is run, for example changing the architecture, the way space is divided up or in the way "presence" is controlled or not....

- innovation in the curriculum, changing the way the overall learning process is organised possibly giving more autonomy to teachers to decide on what they do...

- Innovation in the way "lessons" are taught, for example moving to project-based learning or cross curricular learning breaking out of the limits of traditional subjects,...

- Innovation in forms of assessment like eportfolios for example ... or some form of evaluation of group work ... or self evaluation, empowerment evaluation, ...

- Innovation as a subject itself, encourgaing pupils to be innovative in their work, in their learning,.. in their lives.

Many thanks for reminding us that teachers and teacher training are important. I suspect that the question of encouraging innovation in schools goes beyond the challenge of introducing ICT in education.

You mention creating "favorable conditions" especially for teachers who are afraid. Newness and innovation create anxiety for a good many people. One of the key conditions for encouraging innovation is to keep that anxiety within reasonable limits This can be done through leadership. Do you have training for school leaders? Does it inclcude such issues? An additional way to approach the problem is to help teachers handle the anxiety that change creates. This can be handled by on-going teacher training amongst other things. Does teacher training in Catalonia help teachers deal with anxiety due to change?

Alan.

A speech by Commissioner Potocnik about innovation policy in Europe.

A while ago, Roger Blamire mentioned a book called The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell that discusses how change comes about and advocates, amongst other things, the idea that a limited number of key players largely influence the spread of innovation. These trendsetters have come to be called the "influentials". A recent article in FastCompany challenges this idea, writing about the work done by Duncan Watts. Through large scale computer simulations, the latter arrives to the conclusion that the spread of idea has more to do with the "readiness" of society to accept them than the presence of trendsetters.  The polarity between the two approaches, accentuated by the journalist, may be misleading. Both ideas are probably parts of the overall picture. If you are interested about how change takes places, this article is worth a read.

A summary of points made by Paul Saffo in a talk about predicting the future and the challenges it brings.

The themes of the 2007 JISC online conference were "institutional transformation" and "supporting lifelong learning". Two interesting ebook about these subjects have been published.

A major UK project designed to foster creatviity in schools. Could open doors to introdsucing innovation in schools.

A not very inspiring look at the near future from Business Week. It does confirm the ever-growing interest in innovation in the US that is also being felt in Europe.

The second half of the New York Times article about innovation. It  highlights the usefulness of the outside perspective. This is one of the rich aspects of peer-exchange work across countires and differing cultures and perspectives that is not properly understood and exploited by peers.