innovation continued

As the first week comes to an end, where does that leave my thought on innovation at this stage?

The forum has been an extremely useful place for us in exploring the concept of innovation. It is clear that many agree that the use of technology in itself is not innovative, but that the way it could be use to support a wider learning design is what it important.

Mark Nichols (2003) asserts this as a hypothesis in his work Theory for Learning
(http://home.tiscali.nl/schopmanlanden.nl/Papers/LearningTheory.html viewed 10.02.2011)
"The choice of elearning tools should reflect rather than determine the pedagogy of a course; how technology is used is more important than which technology is used.”


It has struck me time and again through the discussions, that it is often not about what we think as innovative that is important, but what the end users, the learners think is innovative. By using existing technology, creating an experience that is exciting and new for the learners, we could hit upon an innovation. It seems that in many people’s experience, elearning is not about creating an interesting experience for the learner, but often about adopting new technology for the sake of it, to meet standards in business or to be reflective of the moment in education.

Colin King: “Is there a danger that we get caught up in analysing and tinkering with the packaging too much and get deflected from the intended message in the content?”

I viewed innovation as being about the cutting edge technology before this process, but now truly believe that its how we use the everyday technology to create new learning environments that is innovative. We also have to remember that there are some learning environments that we cannot recreate in the online world. And we need to remember that often the barriers are about teachers and trainers not wanting to adapt their ways, or seeing things from a generational perspective.
 
Sarah Dawson “I find that online learning is often billed as being more flexible to fit in with peoples busy schedules and such like, but this also often makes it quite static, for example it will be an electronic version of the syllabus that people can read in there own time, but in terms of teaching it is very limited in terms of what it can offer.

In my experience this idea of people living busy hectic lives is a key driver in much of what we do in developing our training in the Scout Association. We are trying to engage with volunteers who already give up their time. How can we get them to engage with learning the essential things they need to?


Over the last two years learners have asked to have more engagement with learning online. However the learning we already provide suffers from the ‘bells and whistles’ effects that Colin spoke about. We don’t do anything to support the learning, and think drag and drop or simple quizes represent ways in which to test the individuals understanding of what they have learnt. Is it any wonder that Training Managers feel uncomfortable with understanding this, as the learning is not in their control? Do volunteers want to do learning online because they feel it is a better method for them, allowing to explore concepts, or because it’s quicker? We are lucky in that training consists not just of learning for us, but like NVQ we ask for validation, for evidence that the learner has put this knowledge into practice in the role that they are doing.


Sylvia Moessinger mentioned the need for learners to take responsibility for their learning.
“A typical sentence is 'Why don't you give us the answer', showing their reluctance to apply a deeper approach, because that would require to engage with the learning material.”

I hear this a lot, and it is interesting that in an association that has been learning by doing for 100 years, a culture has developed whereby people want to be ‘told the answer’. Is this because our demographics are changing, or because our methods of engaging are no longer exciting enough?


As I mentioned in my forum post, I think that we excel in being innovative and exciting when delivering learning in the traditional face to face methods. Which makes it more frustrating, when trying to recreate this online. We are however entering a period of change, with new lead volunteers who have a better understanding of how learning drives business, and recognise the need for vision and creativity to drive the future. I hope that  as my understanding of innovation grows within this module, that I can take that and change the way those I report to understand this too.