Cultivating innovation in education

Innovative students are capable of solving unanswered problems such as developing an unrefrigerated test for the Ebola virus. Innovative students understand how to use technology and contribute to global society. To educate innovators is to create students who are future ready. Innovating with technology is a new field of education. Globally educators and management teams are struggling with how technology is shifting education. The rate of change has left many school systems still catering for the industrial age. Innovating with technology is a powerful marketing strategy as parents and students are seeking technologically rich environments that equip students with the skills needed to be future ready.  Innovating in education is complex and slow, yet there are indicators that mentoring, training and equipping staff with the right tools allows for a multiplication in innovation and transformation. Being accepted into the Google for Education Innovator Program was definitely one of those equipping experiences. However, I recently had a chance to present at the UNISA Innovation showcase and it made me think I would love to start an Innovation Showcase for students. I have been so inspired by the Google Science Fair YouTube Channel, so I started my own Innovation YouTube Play List. I was struck by how many students were motivated by empathy! It means the Google Summit talk I am preparing on how empathy fuels innovation is right on track! Now I just need to broaden the audience from teachers to students! One way to get students innovating could be entering the Google Science Fair and another could be organising a Student Innovation Summit. I am definitely going to put some thought into this and I am already starting to network with potential speakers e.g. I chatted to an amazing South African Innovator - Paseka Lesolang - Paseka Lesolang's invention that saves the world one toilet at a time.

I can't wait to see what students can come up with when you allow them the space to innovate!

Google Innovator Training Program Takeaways: Design Thinking & Gamification

Hi Everyone,

I recently had the privilege of attending a Google for Education Innovator Program at the Google Office in Boulder, Colorado. I met so many amazing people and learnt so much. Google was incredible in how they spoilt us with wonderful training, great food and lots of fun!

Here's our amazing cohort and coaches!

I will share my own sketchnotes of the time soon... but here is a summary from the wonderful Sylvia Duckworth...

 

I so enjoyed learning about how design thinking models create, relevant successful projects and how empathy sustains innovation at our training academy. I really wanted to share design thinking with my students in South Africa, but I didn't have time to read LAUNCH (I missed the book club) & arrived in Durban late Tuesday night & started school Wednesday morning.

I found this summary http://www.spencerauthor.com/2016/02/curious-about-design-thinking-heres.html/ and I used it for my hard of hearing students (+Melissa Oliver ) and foreign language students - (text works better when you need Google Translate)!

Curious About Design Thinking? Here’s a Framework You Can Use in Any Classroom with Any Age Group – John Spencer

I then came up with a template slideshow that I could adapt and share with 2 different grades and 3 different subjects. I thought some of you may like it as a resource so here it is http://bit.ly/designLAUNCH

So far my kids are having so much fun and hopefully will produce some interesting products.

My Google Sketch-up class loved hearing about how a robot helped a sick student attend school! Thanks +Kern Kelley! - http://www.centralmaine.com/2015/12/26/robot-allows-newport-eight-grader-to-attend-school/

The second big takeaway from Innovator Program was that:

PLAY SPARKS CREATIVITY & HAPPY KIDS LEARN!

We spent a whole session playing games and having fun with Roni Habib (e.g. 1, 2,3 / Clap Snap Jump : Link ). Molly Schroeder also taught us a great magic game with elephants, elves and wizards. Here are similar version of the game: Link

My students loved playing for the first few minutes of the lesson and it created a sense of belonging and happiness which led to better learning and a happier teacher.

I was inspired to create new games for teaching Visual Arts Theory & Creative Process.

My Grade 11s had fun with a treasure hunt... http://bit.ly/treasurearttheory this activity took half an hour to create using Google Cultural Institute & a Google URL Chrome Extension (Link) - & a HyperDoc.

Here's the treasure hunt I used to revise the content from the student's June Exams: Link

Here's a digital treasure hunt I created for the Grade 10s for their Term 1 & 2 Visual Arts Theory content: Link. Prizes were awarded for students who found the Banksys! This was created with a great tool called Google Tourbuilder. I also created Renaissance Treasure hunt for the Grade 10s with court cases for Judge or Jury- http://bit.ly/Renaissancetreasure

For more Riddle Type Games see http://www.breakoutedu.com/

We had such fun playing Breakout games in Colorado! Being on the Breakout Bus was a highlight, but most of all it was a privilege to chat to one of the creators of Breakout Edu - James Sanders and we loved making our own Breakout Edu games!

Judge & Jury is a game I am creating to teach critical thinking. Here's how to play - http://bit.ly/judgeorjury

Google Cultural Institute is a great way to explore the visual creative process and students can favourite and share their best images. Google Cultural Institute Tips

I have been using the following games (Pictionary & Picture Scrabble) to explore a verbal creative process in a fun way. The games can be adapted to suit different subjects, tasks and grades.

Here are the Google Drawing Versions of the images- http://bit.ly/picturescrabble & http://bit.ly/Pictionarygame

I am so grateful to all the students and mentors who encouraged me to pursue using Technology to change education. I hope I can keep giving back.

Special thanks to Frank Sturgess, Neith Moore and everyone from Durban Girls High School, Dr Nic Spaull, Dr John Roome, Nirmi Ziegler and the DUT group, Grant Lewis, Jenny Coetzee, Candice Paton, Cathy Constable Jenni Joseph and everyone from Crawford College La Lucia for helping me get to America.