This will be the third time reading The Innovator’s Mindset, but I am really looking forward to this new experience of a MOOC. I am currently in a book study with the leadership team in my district, so it will be interesting to see the differences between these two very different ways of exploring the book. I am hopeful that the MOOC experience of having access to so many people (1200+) will allow me to add to the in person discussions that we have about our district. It is also my hope that I will have many new ideas added to my toolbox that I can use in my role as a technology integration specialist.

So, the questions for this initial blog… Why is “innovation” so crucial in education? What impact do you see it having on our students and ourselves long-term?

I think that innovation is the way that schools will stay relevant in the lives of students. Being able to come up with new and improved ways of doing things will prove that education is not a passive profession. We cannot be passive! The world has changed from when I was in school in the ’70s and ’80s, but schools still outwardly function the same way. I say outwardly because there are still bells, grades, rows of chairs, etc. present in most schools. Don’t get me wrong, there are those educators and schools who have encouraged innovation and are seeing the benefits in the general level of engagement of students. Innovation is the lifeblood and future of our schools. While that sounds melodramatic, think about a discussion about innovation within a profession like medicine. A surgeon saying that he/she used to successfully perform heart surgery a certain way in the ’80s so it should be good enough for today sounds absolutely ridiculous. We would never send a loved one to that doctor, but we think that educating students in ways of the past is okay! It truly does sadden me to think of a day when public education is completely irrelevant to what students choose to do later in life. I am hoping that this experience is a two-way street of others sparking my thought process as well as me providing food for thought for others!

Don Sturm