Education Innovation

What Do You Think You "Hired" Your Technology To Do?

Educational technology and milkshakes have something in common.

MacDonald’s, wanting to increase the sales of their milkshakes, hired researchers to help them figure the characteristics the customers seemed to care about. They wondered should they make the shakes sweeter, or thicker, etc.

The researchers observed customers buying shakes and realized something strange. Many customers weren’t buying them as a dessert item to go along with a meal as most might assume, but rather these customers were buying a single shake in the morning.

Seems customers, who were on the morning commute to work, were buying shakes to drink for breakfast. MacDonald’s had never thought of shakes that way, so it was surprising to them. MacDonald’s had “hired” their shakes to do the job of a dessert item, but many customers had “hired” the shakes to do the job of an easy to drink breakfast.

This concept was noted in the findings of two Harvard researchers in their essay, “Finding the Right Job for Your Product” and also recounted in Clay Shirky’s recent book, Cognitive Surplus.

The key to understanding what was going on was to stop viewing the product in isolation or your understanding and notions of what it was “hired to do”, and instead look to what the customers had actually “hired it to do.”

You may have decided that you want to bring technology into your school and see it utilized across the curriculum to engage students in 21st  Century learning. You may have a certain notion of what the technology can do and how it will be utilized. You will “hire” technology for one job, but don’t be surprised if the students themselves “hire” it for something else.

For example, you want to give your student access to the web to look up information and learn information literacy skills. That seems implicit to you. However, your students want to use the web to share information. You wanted them to consume, they wanted to produce and share. You have “hired” the web to do a different job than the students have “hired” it do.

You “hired” Google Docs so students could work in small groups in the classroom on projects. Your students “hired” Google Docs so they could collaborate with people, including content experts and other students, across the globe.

You “hired” technology to aide student collaboration is groups of 2-3. The students “hired” technology to aide collaboration in groups of 200-300.

You hired PowerPoint or Keynote for students to create in class presentations. Your students hired it to turn into Slideshare presentations and then share across the web.

You “hired” NoteBook as a way to keep students organized, they “hired” it as a way to make digital talking books.

You “hired” the technology to help students consume. They “hired” it to help them produce. You hired the technology to help students connect. They “hired” it to comment and critique.

As Clay Shirky points out, new tools in new hands, take on new characteristics. In other words, what you “hired” technology to do may not be what students or teacher end up “hiring” technology to do once it is in their hands.

Because sometimes a milkshake is actually breakfast. Are you ready for that? Can you deal with that?

Should Education Ever Imitate Business?

In his new book, The Six Secrets of Change: What the Best Leaders Do to Help Their Organizations Survive and Thrive, author and change expert Michael Fullan warns we should be very careful to follow the latest and greatest theory and to view these theories with a critical eye.

Fullan quotes from the book The Witch Doctors: Making Sense of Management. "Management theory...has four defects: it is constitutionally incapable of self-criticism; its terminology usually confuses rather than educates; it rarely rises above common sense; and it is faddish and bedeviled by contradictions."

Sort of reminds me of educational theory too. But, can education learn something from imitating business theory and models?

A great post by Tim at Intended Consequences blog titled The Business of Education is Business has really got me, and based on the comments, others thinking. Why is education imitating business? Does business have something to offer education?

Tim wrote, “So over the years, I have seen many examples of how education has tried very hard to imitate business models. How many pieces of business jargon have made their way into the culture of education?”

I am sure we can all relate to this. Statements like, “Get the right people on the bus” are now part of our daily conversation.

Tim continues…“What interests me here is that it seems that education is quick to jump onto the business bandwagon, but we have seen time and time again how these business models do not stand the test of time. Even “Good to Great” which highlighted 12 businesses that were examples of greatness and what made them “great” has major flaws. The businesses in that book, since it has been written, have almost universally all gone through major management changes, or have had to restructure due to business losses.” What ever happened to Circuit City? 

This is where the differences between education become stark and clear.

Business
Required to make fundamental internal changes in response to external factors, such as opportunities created between competition, innovation, ideas, global changes, technological changes, and talent levels, etc.

Education
Education is not required to make fundamental internal changes in response to external factors.

Business
Must market to attract customers and create awareness of their service or product.

Education
Students come to us.

Business
Customers’ desires and needs are ever changing, thus driving fundamental organizational changes as necessary.

Education
Do not have to make fundamental organizational changes.

Business
Competition

Education
No competition

Business
Every person in the organization can be held accountable.

Education
Only management can be held accountable.

Business
Paradigms, theories, methods, strategies, and organizational styles change to meet changes and needs in the external environment.

Education
Educational model has not fundamentally changed in a century.

Business
Faces an organizational cost for failure to adjust to external environments, failure to meet the needs of customers, and failure to innovate and capitalize on opportunities.

Education
No cost to the organization.

Business
Compete with other businesses globally.

Education
Not in competition.

Business
Better ideas are a source and force for organization change.

Education
Better ideas are not a force for organizational change and are often prevented by regulations.

Business
No guarantees.

Education
Guaranteed “customers”, employment, raises, and benefits.

Tim asks... “Should we, as educators, really be emulating the world where failure is not only an option, it is a way of life?”

It seems to me that business books are constantly in flux or changing because business itself is constantly in flux. This is a result to stay competitive and productive in an environment that can fundamentally change in a few decades, as evidenced by how the Internet has created whole new businesses, customers, methods, strategies and impacted nearly every facet of how business operates.

This, in turn, would create and ever changing list of books that are written to meet these ever changing environments.

Tim asks… “Should we, as educators, really be emulating the world where failure is not only an option, it is a way of life?”

We don't have to. Education, while educating people who will go on to work in places that will fundamentally change internally to meet external changes every few decades, does not itself have to undergo fundamental internal changes even in light of major external changes. The fundamentals of education have not changed in nearly a century.

Elementary, junior high, and high school are still very similar to how it was when I went to school, but business has seen the rise of the Internet, globalization, and many other external forces, and has had to adapt to them.

Education doesn’t have to change in response to failure, because the very definition of failure is subjective, subject to change, and varies from school to school, district to district, and state to state. Business has a bottom line. Make it and you stay in business for another day. Education has no such bottom line. The kids will keep coming, the schools will stay open, and teachers will keep teaching.

The "Killer App"- Professional Networked Learning Collaboratives

Back in 2002 in his book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution Howard Rheingold predicted that, “The ‘killer apps’ of tomorrow’s mobile infocom industry won’t be hardware devices or software program but social practices. The most far reaching changes will come, as they often do, from the kinds of relationships, enterprises, communities, and markets that the infrastructure makes possible.”

The prediction, as we now know, was spot dead on. (Nothing new for Howard) The technology has transformed our relationships, how we are able to collaborate, how we now define communities, and what kinds of work we are able to do.

This get to the very heart of the Professional Networked Learning Collaborative (PNLC) No longer is the work of educational teams limited to face-to-face over the table collaboration. No longer is email viewed as the technology of choice for collaboration. No longer are teams limited by geography.

The true difference in the Professional Networked Learning Collaborative does not lie in the technology. First, the technology enables different types of relationships. Virtual relationships are now possible and have become commonplace outside of educational settings. Networks of all sorts (Facbebook, Ning, Twitter, etc.) webcams, etc. have changed the very definition of presence.

Second, technology has changed who is part of the team. Team members can now be virtual. Members no longer tied to geographic limitation can provide input, ideas, and collaborate in real-time for any location on the globe. The Professional Learning Community succeeded because it viewed its membership of the grade level/subject matter and the school. The Professional Networked Learning Collaborative enabled through technology expands the ring of membership to include specialist, consultants, district staff, etc as part of the team.

Further, each member of the PNLC will have his or her own developed Personal Learning Network from which to draw on. As each PNLC member’s PLN network overlaps with other team members it becomes much different from the local context of a community. It Overlapping Personal Learning Networks form a collaborative that is a normal functioning part of the Professional Networked Learning Collaborative. We have moved from face-to-face community of physical space to the technology enabled virtual and physical space collaborative.

Third, the very enterprise of the typical grade level or subject matter team will be different as technology enables networks to allows for new levels of data analysis, planning, lesson design, etc. The reality is that what grade levels or subject matter teams will be able to do compared with what they do right will not just more or better… it will be different.

Finally, the PNLC model it not going to be limited to the technology that currently exists for two reasons.

First, the Professional Networked Learning Collaborative is what I call a “Change is Normal Organization”(CiNO). It is designed to change and adapt. The values of the PNLC of ICE3:Imagination, Innovation, Inquiry, Collaboration, Creativity, Curiosity, Exploration, Experimentation, and Entrepreneurship ensure the PNLC will change.

Second, the technology that we now use to collaborate virtually or network on is going to change. But, the hardware we use to access these platforms is going to move off of the desktop or laptop on to our phones. I describe this as the 4th Way. As Howard Rheingold so presciently foretold in 2002, “These devices will help people coordinate actions with others around the world—and, perhaps more importantly, with people nearby. Groups of people using these tools will gain new forms of social power, new ways to organize their interactions and exchanges just in time and just in place.”

He asks, “How will human behavior shift when the appliances we hold in our hands, carry in our pockets, or wear in our clothing become supercomputers that talk to each other through a wireless mega-Internet?”

Howard provides an answer. He says, “They will enable people to act together in new ways and in situations where collective action was not possible before.” 

The PNLC is not just better…it’s totally different. It's the "killer app."

Conventional Leadership vs. Lateral Leadership

Is this the sort of leadership that your school or district needs? More from from Paul Sloane’s list of Conventional Leaders vs. Lateral Leaders found in his book The Leader’s Guide To Lateral Thinking Skills.

and

See more of these traits here (Do You Need Better or Different? )

Howard Gardner calls for "indirect leadership."

"A leader is an individual (or, rarely, a set of individuals) who significantly affects the thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors of a significant number of individuals. Most acknowledged leaders are "direct." They address their public face-to-face. But I have called attention to an unrecognized phenomenon: indirect leadership. In this variety of leading, individuals exert impact through the works that they create.

Whether direct or indirect, leaders fashion stories: principally stories of identity. It is important that a leader be a good storyteller, but equally crucial that the leader embody that story in his or her life. When a leader tells stories to experts, the stories can be quite sophisticated; but when the leader is dealing with a diverse, heterogeneous group, the story must be sufficiently elemental to be understood by the untutored, or 'unschooled,' mind."

Which does your school or district need?

Catalytic Questions:

In what ways is your communication style growing to meet the needs of your school or district?  Will the way you communicate change in the future or remain the same?

What problems are you working on that would benefit from empowering someone else to solve it?

Are you current hiring practices bringing in the most talented candidates? Are there alternatives to you current hiring practices that might improve your results?

How might you look to the past to find new approaches to your current issues?

In what ways might you combine ideas from outside of education to develop new and innovative ideas in education?

How might you encourage and empower your staff to share their ideas?

Which sort of leadership will help you reach your goals, more of the same or lateral or indirect leadership?

The Contradictions of Student Creativity

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont College and author of the book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, said

“Of all human activities, creativity comes closest to providing the fulfillment we all hope to get in our lives. Call it full-blast living.”

Full blast living, embracing our creativity and that of our students, if often filled with contradictions.

From Psychology Today via Write Before Thinking blog

“Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals. If I had to express in one word what makes their personalities different from others, it's complexity. They show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes; instead of being an "individual," each of them is a "multitude."”

1. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they're also often quiet and at rest.

2. Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time.

3. Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.

4. Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality.

5. Creative people trend to be both extroverted and introverted.

6. Creative people are humble and proud at the same time.

7. Creative people, to an extent, escape rigid gender role stereotyping.

8. Creative people are both rebellious and conservative.

9. Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.

10. Creative people's openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment.

Does this sound like any of your students or educators you know?

So many of our students and teachers are filled with these apparent contradictions. We should avoid looking at one behavior or another and make assumptions about creativity or lack of creativity.

Similarly, we as educators, if we are to truly nurture creativity in our students, will need to become comfortable with results that do not meet our expectations, but are, none the less, creative.

As Clay Shirky points out in his book Cognitive Surplus, "The stupidest possible creative act is still a creative act."

Think of it. No matter how silly or feeble the result, the attempt is still creative. Students need to be encouraged to engage in the creative act, and not worry about judgment.

Shirky continues, "On the spectrum of creative work, the difference between the mediocre and the good is vast. Mediocrity is, however, still on the spectrum; you can move from mediocre to good in increments. The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something..."

So this begs a few questions.

Are we as educators willing to accept and even embrace the seeming contradictions in creatives and even encourage these contradictions by moving students along the spectrum of creative work?

Are we as educators willing to push a student to bridge the gap between doing nothing and something?

Are we as educators willing to accept the contradictions of creativity, the spectrum of creative work, help students bridge the gaps between action and inaction, and push students into pursuing "full blast living?" 

Are we as educators comfortable with the messiness and fuzziness that is creativity? We must.

More Educational Wisdom From Sir Ken Robinson

Excellent wisdom and insight from Sir Ken Robinson in this interview by WPSU-TV as part of their series called "Conversations From Penn State." Enjoy.

Crowdsourcing Education Reform Via Twitter and #edchat

Note: This post was originally posted on Edutopia-Igniting Innovation in Education through Collaboration

#edchat's "small sparks"

Keith Sawyer, author of the book Group Genius wrote, "All inventions emerge from a long sequence of small sparks...Collaboration brings small sparks together to generate breakthrough innovation."

Educators need no longer be content to passively wait for others to discover the "small sparks" that are needed to solve classroom or school issues. The technology now exists for educators to share their own "small sparks" at the grassroots level together through networks such as Twitter, and on Twitter that means #edchat.

During the 7/6/10 weekly #edchat my final tweet of the discussion was a fictitious news headline: "Twitter group known at #edchat becomes a powerful source of new directions and innovation in education."

What preceded it was a discussion with others about how #edchat could become a recognized source of educational problem solving, ideas, experimentation, and innovation. For those educators who are on Twitter, #edchat has quickly become the go-to place for discussing educational issues, sharing ideas, links to articles, and posting questions. It is not limited to the Tuesday topic-driven chats, but is happening 24/7. #edchat is producing a lot of "small sparks."

Is it possible that the #edchat conversation on Twitter could evolve into a recognized leader in open source educational ideas, innovations, and solutions? I believe it is.

First, educators need to recognize that #edchat is more than just a Personal Learning Network (PLN) or an on-line Professional Learning Community. It is actually a pNLC- professional Networked Learning Collaborative.

Second, the #edchat pNLC needs to put the ideas, innovation, and solutions into action to produce real tangible classroom or school based results and then give #edchat the credit.

Professional Networked Learning Collaborative- pNLC

The #edchat professional Networked Learning Collaborative (pNLC) will allow teachers access to a greater flow of knowledge and information than ever before. Using a network such as Twitter, teachers will be able to form collaboratives that actually implement the ideas shared via the network. It moves ideas from the digital to the physical.

The essence of the pNLC is that the "who" of potential members and collaborators is increased exponentially because of individual members networking through collaborative technology platforms such as Twitter. Thus, more "small sparks." The pNLC allows educators to "crowdsource."

Crowdsourcing

Jeff Howe, author of Crowdsourcing: Why The Power Of The Crowd Is Driving The Future of Business, points out that there are two shared characteristics of a crowdsourced project. First, the participants are not motivated by money, and second, they are donating their free time. "That is, they're contributing their excess capacity, or 'spare cycles,' to indulge in something they love to do." Clay Shirky would say they are using their "Cognitive Surplus."

The #edchat pNLC is able to crowdsource learning solutions, solve problems, generate ideas, and create innovations for the classroom or school.

#edchat works because virtual teams can form up around educational problems or issues easily. #edchatters are free to pursue their own interests and passions, and thus, are highly motivated. #edchatters can contribute regardless of their professional experience or expertise. That means anyone could provide insight or valuable ideas on a topic or issue they are passionate about. This is why the "p" in pNLC is lower case.

If it is true, as Peter Steiner said, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog," then in the crowd, nobody cares if you are a credentialed expert. It assumes that everyone participating in the #edchat has something of value to offer. All that matters is that one is motivated and knowledgeable.

#edchat Evolution

Wikis or Google docs could be used to post specific issues teachers are seeking help with. Designated hashtags could be generated for each issue creating a sort of #edchat task force. For example, technology topics could use the hashtag #edchat-tech. California teachers could use #edchat-CA. These collaboartive teams could then divide the labor, focus the ideas, and channel the energy.

Evolving the #edchat hashtag into more focused or specialized topics would not only help to focus energy and ideas, but also attract other people who have an interest in those topics. Results and evidence of the work can be posted as YouTube videos, magazine articles, blog posts, and the main #edchat Twitter conversation.

Serendipity

The simple definition of serendipity is finding what we didn't know what we were looking for. It is unexpected encounters with people and the knowledge they possess. But what if, instead of accidentally stumbling into a serendipitous encounter, you could attract or draw these people to you--a form of purposeful serendipity?

The #edchat pNLC does just that. Participating in #edchat will allow an individual teacher to form a learning collaborative--to reach beyond the walls of their classroom or school and into the "crowd" and gather up all those "small sparks." All it takes is some imagination to see the possibilities.

Educational Edgecraft

What do you get when you combine the ideas of John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, Lang Davison, Seth Godin, and Michael Michalko? Into the Education Innovation blender they go. The result-- Educational Edgecraft

Let's talk about edges.

John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison, authors of The Power of Pull, defines edges this way.

“Edges are places that become fertile ground for innovation because they spawn new unmet needs and unexploited capabilities and attract people who are risk takers. Edges therefore become significant drivers or knowledge create and economic growth, challenging and ultimately transforming traditional arrangements and approaches.”

Seth Godin, author of Free Prize Inside, defines edgecraft this way.

“Edgecraft is a methodical, measurable process that allows individuals and teams to inexorably identify the soft innovation that live on the edges of what already exists.”

So in one sense the “edge” is that place where what you do in education meets ideas, knowledge, and needs of what others do outside education transforming the core of your school or classroom.  In another sense, the “edge” is an innovation of what you are already doing in your school or classroom that is so far from the current reality that it becomes remarkable.

Ideas from outside and or remarkable innovations from inside can be, as the author of ThinkerToys creativity expert Michael Michalko would advise, “SCAMPERed” (Substituted, Combined, Adapted, Modified, Put to other purpose, Eliminated, or Rearranged) into powerful ideas and innovations.

 Chart inspired from Seth Godin

Edge
Network	KWOK- Know What Others Know Share what you know with others. Learn what you can from others. Get outside of education and bring back ideas that will work in education. Understand the power of the network to bring new ideas from outside in. Become the Twitter of schools.
Ergonomics and Design	Change the look of the school and or classroom. Put couches or bean bags in your lounge. Use special paint so students and teachers can write on the walls. Change your office to better suit parents. Rearrange the desks in the classroom to create more collaboration. Think about the ergonomics and design of your school. Be the Herman Miller or IDEO of schools.
Make It Noticeable	Make everything a work of art the tells the world who you are. Show off the learning. Put it online, podcast it, videocast it, or SlideShare it. Make the learning noticeable and people will notice you. Become the Etsy of schools.
The Senses	Display something beautiful or thought provoking, make the school smell good, bring food that tastes good, put on some great music, use some furniture that feels good. Hook into the senses. Become the Starbucks of schools.
Time	Manipulate time. Add time here and take it away from there. Give the gift of time to a teacher. Turn your staff meeting into a speed dating meeting for ideas. Find some creative ways to "waste time." Give teachers an entire staff meeting to choose a problem of their choice and work on it. Become the Google of schools.
Emotion	Hook emotion into your work. Make someone laugh. Surprise and thrill someone. Make them angry to take action. Empathize. Inspire someone. Just do it. Become the Nike of schools.
Technology	Use technology that makes work easier to share, collaborate, and communicate with others. Prepare for and begin discussing the technology that will be, not what is. It's about the user not the hardware. Make technology simple. Become the Apple of schools.
Marketing	Learn how to "sell" ideas by making them memorable. Learn how to connect through ideas. Make your ideas "stick." Become the Chip and Dan Heath of schools.
Safety	Make things safer than people would expect. Become the Qantas Airlines of schools.
Differentiate	Give student, teacher, and parent just what they need in the way they need it. Customize the school. Become the "Amazon Recommends" of schools.
The System	Change the system, modify the system, or adapt new ideas and technologies to the system. You can change how you deliver instruction in a way that people will demand and expect from then on. Become the Netflix of schools.
Interactive	Involve parents in ways they never expected. Involve students in ways they never expected. Give them immediate feedback so changes can be made immediately. Give them a say. Become the Threadless of schools.
Do Less	Do more by doing less. Let parents and students do more. Let the district do more. Let volunteers do more. Empower others to do for themselves and the school. Become the Salvation Army of schools.
Change the "Who"	Bring the office manager into the classroom to work with the students. Have a teacher run the school for a day. Let the student teach the lesson. Involve others in new ways. Change who does what and you will change their perspectives. Become the Wikipedia of schools
Fix What Is Broken	Don't ignore it, fix it. Be willing to spend time on fixing even the little things. Little things can make a big difference. Believe you can do it. Use soft innovation. Become the Seth Godin of schools.
Make It Cheaper	Drive down the "costs" by becoming uber-recyclers. Reuse- adapt it. Think of better ways to use what already exists. Become the First Solar of schools.
Focus On The Tough Problems	Create a school culture that loves the challenge of solving the tough problems. Let the other schools do the easy stuff. Work on the things that no one is doing because they think it is to hard. Become the Novartis of schools.

The mash-up of these three concepts provides Lateral Wisdom and Lateral Wisdom is Education Innovation.