Innovation and Creativity: A New Education for a New Era

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Innovation and CreativityA New Education for a
New Era

• Eduardo O C Chaves
• eduardo_at_chaves.com.br

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A New Era

• The last 60 years have introduced a new era
• The new era has been variously described
• Information / Knowledge / Post-Industrial Society
  
• Post-Capitalist / Post-Socialist / Post-Ideology
  Society
• Post-Modern Society
• The Creative Society
• The Third Wave (Alvin Toffler, 1980)

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The New Era and Change

• Change is the most visible feature of this
  society
• Change greatly increased in quantity
• Change greatly increased in speed
• Change became pervasive (affects all domains)
• Change seems to have a basic direction

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Founding Period Late 40s 50s

• End of last really global conflict
• Creation of the United Nations
• Beginning of the Cold War
• Great expansion of automobile use
• Great expansion of air travel
• Invention of the computer
• Appearance of truly mass media television

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Middle Ages The 60s

• Appearance of counter-culture and protest
  movements (It is forbidden to forbid)
• Expansion of civil and social rights
• Invention of the pill and the appearance of the
  sexual revolution and feminism
• Invention of the Internet (1969)

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Modern Period the 70s, 80s, 90s

• 70s Personal computers are invented
• 80s The digital revolution begins in the
  workplace
• 80s Women invade schools and the workplace
• 90s No more Communism (almost!)
• 90s Internet becomes comercial and truly global
  
• 90s Cell phones and wireless communications
• 90s Cable and satellite TV
• 90s Economic and cultural globalization

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Present Day the New Millenium (the 00s)

• Digital revolution in the overall culture
• Access to multimedia information over the
  Internet
• Mass media converge to the Internet
• Leisure over the Internet (Web, Chats, Games,
  etc.)
• E-Mail and instant messaging (business and
  personal)
• Distance Education / Learning
• Digital revolution in the home
• CDs, CD-ROMs, DVDs, Digital TV, home theaters
• Digital cameras (still photography and video)
• Latest generation videogames, digital toys of all
  types

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The Old Era One-ness and Stability

• One country, one region, one city
• One culture, one set of values, one language
• One house, one partner, one family
• One profession, one job (for the man of the
  family)
• One religion, one church
• One political loyalty, one party
• One club, one team, one hobby, one kind of
  leisure
• Clear distinction between work, leisure, learning
• Little virtuality in life (literature, cinema)

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The New Era Multi-ness and Instability

• We live in multiple countries, regions, and
  cities
• We combine multiple cultures, values, languages
• We have multiple houses, partners and families
• We go through various professions and jobs
• We are flexible towards religion and churches
• We do not have long-lasting political loyalties
• We are members of various clubs and associations
• Boundaries of work, leisure and learning are
  fluid
• We work, communicate, access information, shop,
  play and sometimes love largely in virtual space

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Change, Creativity and Innovation

• Stability means no or little change
• A society or an organization is stable when it
  does not change or changes very little or very
  slowly
• A stable society or organization has little need
  of creativity and innovation it faces few
  changes and generally knows how to deal with the
  changes it faces
• Change, however, especially when pervasive and
  rapid, makes creativity and innovation imperative

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The Role of Technology

• Technology is important as a catalyst for change
  (the automobile, the airplane, the pill, TV,
  computers, Internet...)
• But changes starts with individuals
• When widely adopted, however, they become social,
  cultural, economic, and political changes
  sometimes of the greatest importance

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Education

• Education does not take place in a vacuum it
  happens in a historical context
• What we do in education must be clearly affected
  by changes in the social, cultural, economic and
  political context in which education takes place
• It is difficult to conceive that we could enter a
  new era in social, cultural, economic and
  political aspects and yet continue to educate the
  same way weve always done

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Changes Relevant to Education

• Quasi-universal availability of information and
  ease of access to it
• Globalization of communication and ease of travel
  
• Learning taking place anytime, anywhere, anyhow
• (All of these reasons have to do with
  technology!)

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Information and Knowledge

• Information, today, is easily available, to be
  acquired as needed, and access to it is simple
  and easy
• Knowledge (differently from information) is seen,
  today, as something to be built by each person
• So, information need not, and knowledge cannot,
  be transmitted, transferred, delivered . . .
• This is the collapse of the view that education
  is content delivery, transmission of information
  and knowledge

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Communication and Travel

• Not only is access to information easy but access
  to experts anywhere in the world has become
  possible, costless and easy (from a technical
  point of view)
• If an urgent face-to-face encounter is necessary,
  technically it can take place within 24 hours
• So, the teacher is far from being the only expert
  to whom the student can resort, in case of need

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Learning

• Anyone can now learn anytime, throughout life
• Anyone can now learn anywhere, wherever one has
  access to the Internet
• Anyone can now learn anyhow, in tacit, non-formal
  and formal ways
• So, learning need not, and perhaps even should
  not, be concentrated in a given period of life
  (school age) and in a particular place (the
  school) nor ought it to be standardized, one
  size fits all

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Education

• Education, and especially schooling, needs to
  face considerable change if it is going to be
  able to do what is expected of it in the new era
• These changes will probably be drastic, profound,
  broad, far-reaching not gradual and incremental
  
• These changes should lead to true transformation
  (going beyond present form) not to mere reform
  
• These changes will certainly require great
  creativity and innovation

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Schools

• Schools are complex organizations that are
  supposed to provide the best environment for
  learning
• In the ecology that schools provide for
  learning, many factors affect performance that
  is, learning outcomes
• Teachers
• Principals and administrators
• Vision of education, of children, of learning
• Curricula and methodologies
• Resources (among which are books, computers,
  etc.)
• Infrastructure (libraries, laboratories, etc.)

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Technology and Schools

• By changing only one of these elements we will
  not bring about the changes that are necessary
  for schools to deal competently with the changes
  that the 21st century presents
• These changes will not happen without technology
  but the mere introduction of technology into
  the ecology, all the other elements left
  unchanged, will not be enough
• The School of the Future still needs to be
  invented

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The Focus of Change

• The focus here is on positive, voluntary change
  in organizations and individuals responsible for
  education
• Organizational change What changes are needed in
  present educational organizations (mostly
  schools)
• Individual change What changes are needed in us
  as educators (mostly teachers and school
  administrators)
• Effective change is a product of both individual
  and organizational change
• Effective change begins with individuals even
  if their goal is to change organizations

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Types of Change

• Changes can be incremental or radical
• Positive incremental changes lead to improvement
• Radical changes lead to transformation
• A series of improvements leads to reform, a
  process in which present form is maintained but
  perfected
• Transformation means transcending present form
  and can only be reached through innovation a
  process in which there is search for a totally
  new form

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Technology and Change

• Technology can be used
• To sustain and support what we are already doing
  (conservative use does not lead to change)
• To supplement and extend what we are doing (leads
  to improvement and reform)
• To subvert and transform what we are doing
  (leads to transformation and innovation)
• (George Thomas Scharffenberger, 2004)

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Reform or Transformation?

• As the quality of a given school or school system
  goes down, the degree of radical innovation that
  is acceptable in it goes up !
• As the quality of a given school or school system
  goes up, the degree of radical innovation that is
  acceptable in it goes down !
• (Nicholas Negroponte, 2005)

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Transformation and Innovation

• Innovation has to do with what is new, with
  searching a new form
• The new is not the old, refurbished, warmed over
• Innovation is more radical than mere improvements
  that lead to reform it is a true
  transformation, that leads to transcending
  present form
• New and old are context-bound terms and the
  context, in this case, is defined by the changes
  that have been taking place in the last sixty
  years

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How does Innovation Come About?

• Creative people
• Open environments
• Resources and tools

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Present Schools and Innovation

• There certainly are creative people in our
  schools
• There are resources and technology in our schools
  
• But there is no culture of innovation, that is,
  the right kind of environment is missing
• So innovation is rare and difficult to sustain
  (and technology is not used innovatively)

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The Right Environment for Innovation

• Creative people, even when they have resources
  and tools, have difficulty generating sustainable
  innovations if the environment is not right . . .
  
• The right environment for innovation . . .
• Is open, relatively flat, non-bureaucratic
• Stimulates initiative and risk-taking
• Requires and promotes continued learning
• Views mistakes as an integral part of learning
• Rewards competent, successful innovation

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The Right Environment for Innovation

• This kind of environment attracts creative
  people see Richard Florida, The Rise of the
  Creative Class and The Flight of the Creative
  Class

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What Innovation in Education is NOT

• Teaching technology to students
• Integrating technology into the present
  curriculum
• Using technology to improve teaching

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Real Innovation in Education

• Real innovation in education requires us
• To reconceptualize education
• To reinvent schools
• To transform ourselves (educators, teachers,
  school administrators)

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In Other Words . . .

• How can we reconceive education, so that it goes
  beyond (transcends) the present paradigm?
• How can we reinvent our schools, so they can
  become open environments that stimulate
  initiative, require continued learning and reward
  innovation?
• How can we recreate ourselves, so we can become
  truly creative and innovative in facing the
  demands and the expectations that the 21st
  century places upon education?

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Education and Human Development

• Education has to do with human development, with
  realizing human potential
• Human beings are born totally incompetent and
  dependent
• But they are born with an incredible capacity to
  learn
• Education is the process by which incompetence is
  translated into competence, dependence into
  autonomy
• This process takes place through learning

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Learning

• To learn is to become capable of doing that which
  one was not able to do before
• To learn is to build ones competence to act with
  autonomy
• The learning that is essential to human life has
  two sides to it
• To become able to freely define ones life
  project
• To become competent to transform it into reality

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How do we Learn?

• Observing expert or acceptable behavior
• Desiring to do the same (motivation)
• Attempting to do it
• Generally failing
• Receiving feedback (collaboration)
• Attempting to do it again
• Succeeding in a limited way
• Receiving incentive and more feedback
  (collaboration)
• Improving behavior until its performance becomes
  acceptable
• Sometimes seeking to become experts

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Education, Learning and Collaboration

• No one educates any one else. Nor do we educate
  ourselves. We educate one another, in communion,
  in the context of living in this world
• (Paulo Freire, 1979)

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Creative Learning Environments

• Living a life that is fulfilling and leads to
  personal realization is the most creative
  accomplishment anyone can achieve
• Helping students to learn how to live this kind
  of life is the most challenging task of education
  
• This type of learning requires rich and
  stimulating learning environments that are
  centered on the needs and interests of the
  learners and that are clearly focused on human
  development and on competence-building

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A Learner-Centered, Creative School

• Learning is active, hands-on
• Learning is collaborative and yet individualized
  to the level of personalization
• Learning takes place when needed (just in time)
  in small modules (just enough)
• Learning is lifelong and always focused on the
  future

• Built into life (related to the learners life
  project)
• Centered on the learners needs and interests
• Driven by demand
• Aimed at problem-solving (project-based)
• Focused on building competence autonomy

• Learning is deeply personal and yet always
  enhanced and often mediated by technology

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Innovative Teachers (1)

• The most innovative thing teachers can do in this
  kind of school is stop teaching ... (well, unless
  students insist that they do so !)
• Teachers should listen and watch first, and then
  try to orient, advise, support, cheer,
  facilitate, instigate, ask questions (rather than
  give answers), open exciting new horizons, gently
  provoke, give incentive, be coaches, mentors,
  role models . . .
• These roles for teachers are more important than
  their role as content deliverers !

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Innovative Teachers (2)

• Innovative teachers are the ones that use their
  creativity in order to help students become truly
  creative in the living of their lives
• Innovative teachers are the ones that use their
  creativity to support the building of this kind
  ofschool of the future (needed in the present)
  
• Innovative teachers are not the ones that learn
  to use technology well, but rather the ones that
  empower their students to use technology to learn

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Leadership

• Leadership, to be effective, must be spread
  through-out the organization
• A leader seeks to develop the leadership
  potential of others
• Leader, therefore, is not only the manager or the
  boss everybody should be a leader in their own
  sphere of action
• The success of a leader is directly related to
  their ability to make other people successful
• It is only this way that an organization can
  succeed

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Leading for Change in Schools

• An innovative leader is one that is capable of
  making the school the sort of open environment
  that is conducive to ongoing innovative change
• An innovative leader is one that is capable of
  developing leadership in others on an ongoing
  basis
• There is no other factor as important to creating
  and maintaining an organization culture conducive
  to ongoing innovation in a school as innovative
  leaders be they principals, supervisors or, nor
  infrequently, teachers themselves

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Thank you !
Eduardo O C Chaves eduardo_at_chaves.com.br