27/09/2019

The September ITE Forum brought together voices from schools, universities and industry to discuss, what really are the benefits for schools and teachers in being innovative?

The September ITE Forum brought together voices from schools, universities and industry to discuss, what really are the benefits for schools and teachers in being innovative?

Niall O'Connor (Deputy Head, Ardgillan CC) started with the school-led perspective, sharing his own innovative practice which puts the students at the heart of their learning. From his experience, two of the big outputs from changing teaching methodologies, are around creating a positive learning culture and the resilience of the students which they then take forward into universities and lifelong learning.

Prof. Kevin Burden (Hull University) and Assoc Prof. Matthew Kearney (University of Technology Sydney) followed, talking about the importance of evaluation, to be able to assess if innovation is effective, stressing that innovation is context specific i.e. as perceived by the people who are part of the innovation. From experience of running several Eramus+ projects in the field of innovative around mobile technologies, the importance of evidence is key to convincing policy makers that it is not just replicating existing practices, but bringing about significantly different patterns of learning in an impactful way. Sharing results from the analysis of 57 innovative studies in mobile technologies showed natural clusters grouping around e.g. authentic learning, adaptive learning¹.  These principles have been taken forward into their latest project DEIMP, which includes an App for teachers to share innovative practice and a MOOC, free to all, starting on 4^th October 2019.

The conversation then turned to industries view on innovation. Prior to the forum, Peter Claxton (Senior Strategic Manager, SMART Technology) had canvassed the views from across SMART's global education team which echoed the previous speakers. Highlighting the challenges of ‘crossing the gap', of how to get traction and embed  innovation is a critical challenge faced by both industry and education. Innovation is not just about the technology, in education it brings in areas such as child psychology, learning theories and teaching methods.

Chairing the follow-on discussion, Dr Conor Galvin (University College Dublin) covered  questions on the reach of technology, equitability to all learners, and how to take advantage of learning beyond the classroom. 

The session finished back with schools, and Niall explaining as a Deputy Head, keys to supporting change: alignment with the school strategy plan, the importance of being able to demonstrate the tangible return, the enhanced learning experience. In terms of reaching out to convince policy makers and teachers, the use of social media, national and subject conferences, involvement in European projects to share practice, educational open resources, and vital to remember, that to get it, people need to be able to see/feel how it works in their context, to overcome the argument that is often heard ‘that will never work with my students'.

Join the next discussion  here on 17^th October with the focus on Artificial Intelligence.

^1. Burden, K., Kearney, M., Schuck, S., & Hall, T (2019). Investigating the use of innovative mobile pedagogies for school-aged students: A systematic literature review. Computers & Education, 138, 83-100 doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.04.008.