The post below was inspired by the following videos.  Links below in the references.

Innovation is a solution coming about many times from necessity. In Joi Ito’s TED Talk entitled “Want to Innovate? Become a ‘Now-ist’”(2014) he describes how the major earthquake in Japan spurred a movement of citizen scientists to track the radiation from the leaking reactors.  No one person knew all the direction, but it was just something that had to be done.  I think that is why most people innovate.  

Innovation that is occurring in schools is for the same reasons.  Schools are expecting more from students, but yet there has been no fundamental change on how school is done.  It has been said that most of the jobs that will be available when today’s elementary children start college will not have existed today.  We do not know what is ahead of us and the work force in the coming years.  It is because of that, that innovation must occur in schools.  Innovation will occur when educators stop asking for permission to adjust the flow of class, but do it because it is what is best for their students.  Ito describes this a “Designer to Engineer Model of Innovation” (2014).  Where the designer (the teacher) will follow their own path before showing what they did or need to the engineer (the curriculum department).  This way of thinking allows for quick simple ideas to occur, and allows for adjustments based on the needs of the kids.

As technology has become more prevalent in the classroom, the need to ask what? questions (base level) have become obsolete.  An educator should not focus their questioning and the student work based on the base level of question, but instead go to the upper end of the Bloom spectrum.  Educators should ask how? why? what could change if?  These questions get the students to think and develop deeper ideas about the topic.  A handheld phone or tablet can be used to find the answers to what? to move on to the how and why.  Whereas something like a 3D printer can help a student reimage where an answer could go.  With 3D printers a student can make a quick, cheap prototype.  Simple mock ups made can make a student enjoy learning and not fear failure (3D Printing, 2011).  Simple changes to technology can help students innovate.  These changes can help students become their own learners.

References

3D printing -- this century's most disruptive innovation?! | David F. Flanders | TEDxHamburg. (2011, June 28). Retrieved September 06, 2016, from https://youtu.be/ChKwIUhx_ic

Joi Ito: Want to innovate? Become a "now-ist" (2014, July 07). Retrieved September 06, 2016, from https://youtu.be/VsjTVGIw4z8