Connecting and communicating your ideas with disruptive innovation

Robert Bracken
 

I had the great opportunity to visit all four of Klein ISD’s high schools to make videos highlighting our Advanced Placement courses. When talking with students and teachers, they noted how AP students, and other students alike, want to be challenged everyday. This includes new teaching methods, new assignments, new kinesthetic learning situations, etc. As Klein ISD continues to incorporate blended learning into our curriculum, we need to stay on top of technology that the brightest students want to use to learn. They want to be the leaders of tomorrow, and they will keep making recommendations about how they want to learn. These students are aware when their education is inadequate. So we need to make sure that students are not missing out.

 

Teachers are the role models for student success. My innovation plan is focused on teachers to create videos for their blended learning environment. I will lead this training program, and I will lean on well-researched ideas so that teachers themselves can extend learning through teacher created videos. My expertise as a video production specialist in our Professional Learning department will be beneficial for beginning this new initiative.

 

Following the book Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools (2015), it’s a great foundation to positively impact the workplace. This book is a roadmap for empowering teachers to make videos designed for blended learning courses. Today’s student lives in a digital generation. Students are looking for new ways to connect with the learning they’re getting so that it applies to them. Teachers can become the role models of the 21st century education and learning process.

 

Some videos teachers can create include ‘look ahead’ videos to explain key topics, or a ‘wrap-up’ video to reinforce those key topics, explainer videos of a specific topic, or a mentoring video of the teacher explaining how a student is doing so both the student and parents can watch. This will give students the ability to access personalized instruction 24 hours a day at their convenience.

 

Looking at my Innovation Plan you can see a more detailed report of what I am trying to accomplish.

(https://dalen52.wixsite.com/houston713/innovation-plan-lamar-u)

 

Looking at my Literature Review this supports my innovation plan. I cited over 20 articles and books where great learning meets today’s technology.

(https://dalen52.wixsite.com/houston713/literature-review)

 

Here is my implementation outline where I list a few steps to create a training program to use video in the classroom to enhance learning.

(https://dalen52.wixsite.com/houston713/outline-learning-from-leaders)

 

Here’s my promo video (https://youtu.be/clUPs921RU4)  - where I present my vision for video creation training and maximising the equipment our district gives to students and teachers.

 

I am very aware that whatever teacher do in the classroom it must be researched based. The culture of learning needs to be changed, but in order to do that it, innovators, like myself, need to understand what works. Student success and achievement is a big part of why I believe in this work (Davis 2015). There are pros and cons to this research but my focus is on a desire for successful outcomes for students and connecting with them through today’s technology.

 

Having teachers create their own videos at Klein ISD will integrate various learning environments. It will combine the best of instructor-led classroom learning with the best of online learning. By taking a hard look at what does not work and how blended learning is not a crutch, teachers and educators alike will begin to see this is a way to modify the learning environment that will ultimately provide tremendous gains for our students.

 

Also if done correctly, it will support more equitable access to learning resources and discipline-specific expertise. Depending on the subject area for the teacher they can differentiate toward the student’s needs by adding information to their video that engages that learner. Students learn at different speeds. “Technologies should be employed to help students become empowered citizens rather than passive consumers” (Strauss 2015). The teacher-led videos become a tool for students to take a hold of their education and become active participants as opposed to passive consumers, as Strauss describes. The teacher can only create strong videos for their students if they understand their personalities, learning styles, and various other likes and dislikes. Only then can they tailor the videos to fit the students’ needs.

 

As I’ve been promoting my ideas at work I’ve faced some resistance to this plan of teachers making their own videos. They see it as another thing to do with everything else that’s on their plate. Using this quote from my professor at Lamar University, he states,  “Change is a constant we will face whether we embrace it or not. Disruptive innovation will bring about change. If you’re simply reactive, it can put you in a position of simply surviving the storms.” (Harapnuik n.d.). Change can be difficult to implement, but we need to modify our learning environments to meet our student’s needs, and this method will be the answer. We know kids love videos, but we aren’t trying to just make videos, we’re trying to engage them in a meaningful manner. The best person to do that is the student’s teacher.

References

 

Davis, M. (2015, April 13). Blended Learning Research: The Seven Studies You Need to Know. Retrieved November 04, 2016, from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2015/04/blended_learning_research_the.html

 

This article has expanded my thinking of what is good blended learning. With technology innovations outpacing our research capabilities, it is more important than ever to cross check what is happening with today’s learning. It makes sense to have formative assessments when students use the computer during the school day.

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Harapnuik, D. (2017) Connecting and communicating your ideas [Lecture notes].

Retrieved from https://luonline.blackboard.com

 

This final assignment is guided that we need to communicate big ideas with big words. Change is happening all around us regardless. I used his words to clarify to teachers in my school district how much their role as a teacher will change over the next few years.

 

Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2015). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

 

This is my go-to source. This book is a roadmap for designing great blended learning courses. It creates a clear picture of what blended learning is and is not. The author successfully predicted how much online learning is disrupting our school learning.

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Strauss, V. (2015, June 21). Blended learning: The great new thing or the great new hype? Retrieved November 04, 2016, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/06/21/blended-learning-the-great-new-thing-or-the-great-new-hype/

 

Blended learning cannot be run by adults without teaching certifications, and does not allow a school to dramatically increase the student-to-teacher ratio. There is such hope in this article about the power of blended learning and how it can engage learners to places we never thought possible.