SUBMITTED BY: ROSALY D.

CUSTODIO
SUBMITTED TO: DR. ROSARIO N. ANDAYA
MEM 210 - Educational Reforms and Innovations

LEARNING MODULE 9
TOPIC: Innovation in Education
Subtopic: Measures of Innovation

ENGAGING ACTIVITY

Develop your own idea for action in responding to innovation in

education. How do you see your school in the innovation scenario?

Innovation is defined as ―the process of making changes to something

established by introducing something new.‖ It applies to radical or incremental changes
to products, processes or services. Over the years there have been many changes in
the way education is designed and delivered in parts of the world. Today, technology is
a significant driver behind change, and sometimes plays an important role in
innovations in educational design and delivery. There are immense possibilities for
greater and wider-spread change with the use of present-day technological
advancements, as well as with the implementation of innovative educational programs.
The challenge is to ensure that innovation plays a constructive role in improving
educational opportunities for billions of people who remain under-served in a rapidly
developing world. With the emergence of smart phones, eBook readers, ‗Podcasts‘ and
‗Vodcasts, Internet and low-cost computers, as well as solar electricity, cell phone
access, and other technologies, comes the opportunity to provide education to assist
individuals and communities in places under-served by traditional educational institutes.
Technology and other innovations enable educational design and delivery to be adapted
to the needs and environment of students enrolled in Open and Distance learning (ODL)
and traditional educational programs. Thus, technology can also help programs shift to
a ‗learner-centered‘ approach to education. The focus must be on achieving education
and development objectives, not on popularising technical gadgets. However, learners
have demonstrated the ability to gain technical proficiency in a variety of software,
hardware, and other information and communications technologies (ICTs). In many
places, cell phones are in very widespread use, and text messaging is popular for work
and personal communications, yet few institutions have adopted this tool.

The challenge of closing the ever-widening gap between the haves and have-
nots may rest with the willingness of the education community to view education from a
new perspective —and to innovate. This may include making use of affordable and
accessible technologies to expand access to education. It may also require other
innovative process or service strategies that do not rely on technology. It may require a
shift in focus, to target educational and training programs to align more closely with
what people identify as their most urgent needs. Providing education in new and
unconventional ways is only one of a number of solutions, but it is through innovation
that we can meet the challenges of improved efficiencies, lower costs, increasing
accessibility, and greater success in achieving development goals through education.

Enlisted are few ways to promote innovation in schools: Greater autonomy is

necessary for innovation to occur, institutions need to tap into the intrinsic motivation
educators and same for the students. The best way to do so is through greater
autonomy. There is a need to empower the educators by scheduling fewer meetings
and giving them set instructions for them. Educators should be given control over their
teaching patterns. Workshops should be conducted by expert leaders for educators to
learn, grow and finding ways to pilot promising ideas. Similarly, educators should give
students the authority over their learning and help them learn at their individual pace.
Educators should be welcoming for the different ideas students bring on table and try to
teach them the way student learn. Allow teachers and students to create new routines,
new traditions, and build new approaches to learning. Encourage teachers and students
to create collaborative communities of learners that are networked inside and outside
the school. Promote teams while giving all learners time to reflect on what they are
learning. Team activities can help a lot with this. Give them the time and resources for a
thorough analysis (classes, readings, connections with experts, visits to and interviews
with others who have adopted it, etc.). Make this a dream team and then support their
decisions when they report back. At the beginning, provide clear questions and direction
for the group, and then work closely with them to help act on what they find and
recommend. Promote a school culture that embraces failure as fuel for innovation. As
the saying goes, mistakes are the best lesson. Similarly, students and educators must
be willing to make mistakes, learn and grown from. It is important as mistakes only
signify that they are trying and to innovate this must happen. Allow teachers and
students to fail, so long as they are willing to learn from their mistakes and grow. Bring
people into the school community who think in unique and interesting ways. Don‘t hire
teachers or admit students according to a prototype. Hire for uniqueness and potential.
Different people bring different ideas to the table. So make sure that diversity is
appreciated at the organization. Don‘t be afraid to redefine expectations for teachers
and students to embrace the 21st Century skills we need to be connected learners in a
global society. Kill all your unrealistic expectation. Don‘t put all your eggs in one basket
and push a big idea, try ―soft innovation‖ that encourages teachers and students to be
innovating or creating at all times. Every innovative idea and discovery should be
rewarded during the assessment process. This should be reflected by the rubric of
criteria. Educators are encouraged to add a rubric section that allows them to evaluate
creative ideas and innovation independently from the rest of the grading criteria.
Innovation should reflect on the final grading and the rewarding policy.
ENRICHING OUTPUT
Create a Collage about "Innovation in Education" then explain it in 2 – 3
paragraphs.
 Innovation in education means doing what‘s best for all students. Teachers,
lessons, and curriculum have to be flexible. We have to get our students to think and
ask questions. We need to pique their curiosity, and find ways to keep them interested.
Innovation means change, so we have to learn that our students need more than the
skills needed to pass the state assessments given every spring. We have to give them
tools that will make them productive in their future careers. Innovation, to me, means
finding any way you can to reach all of your students. This means being willing and
flexible to adjust what you teach and how you teach. We have to keep our students
engaged and excited to learn. We have to create a safe place for them to make
mistakes, take risks, and ask questions. Innovation in education is always seeking
knowledge that will support new and unique ideas in instructional techniques that will
reach the students in more effective and exciting ways..

Makoko Floating School is a prototype floating structure, built for the coastal
water community of Makoko, and located on the lagoon fringe of Nigeria's largest city,
Lagos. Some have called it "gender madness", but the Egalia pre-school in Stockholm
says its goal is to free children from social expectations based on their sex. Sra Pou
vocational school is a vocational training center and community building in Sra Pou
village, Cambodia. Carpe Diem Learning Systems schools are tuition-free public
charter schools educating 6th–12th grade students. They use Carpe Diem Learning
Systems' proprietary ―blended learning‖ model developed by founder and CEO Rick
Ogston. The Carpe Diem model blends individual digital curriculum with high quality
instruction. Colegios Peruanos S.A. (―Innova Schools‖, or the ―Issuer‖) is a K-12 private
education company with an innovative educational model to provide affordable, quality
education for students belonging to middle-class families in Peru.
Innovation in education is stepping outside of the box, challenging our methods
and strategies in order to support the success of all students as well as ourselves
Everyone these days is striving to be innovative, is promising innovation, is encouraging
others to innovate. But if you think about it, it‘s overused for a reason. It‘s a single word
that encapsulates everything that is exciting in any industry—a goal to shoot for
because it means you‘re different, your ideas are new, and your work is almost magical.
 LEARNING MODULE 10

TOPIC: Innovation in Education

Subtopic: Innovation Strategies in Education

ENGAGING ACTIVITY

Share one technology-based innovation you have used in teaching

particularly last school year.

Virtual Reality (VR) in Education

Virtual Reality technology is already the hottest thing in the tech world. One of
the areas of application of VR technology is education. With VR, students can learn via
interacting with a 3D world. Google has been on the forefront of introducing experiential
learning in schools through VR technology. VR allows my students to do so much more
than passively consume virtual and augmented reality experiences Our simple portal
makes it easy for teachers to upload student-created content; just drag and drop to
share with the whole class. Look out for upcoming features that empower students to
build their own 3D virtual worlds – the only limit is their imagination! Technological tools
to inspire a generation who have never known life without smartphones can be hard to
come by. Virtual and Augmented Reality are a fantastic example of technologies with
untold possibility in the years ahead. The buzz and enthusiasm in a classroom when the
VR headsets come out is hard to beat – and the learning potential is immense. Virtual
reality can improve education by providing students with memorable and immersive
experiences that would otherwise not be possible. What's more, it can all take place
within the classroom. VR is accessible to every student and can be easily monitored by
teachers. Before looking into some of the benefits of virtual reality in education, let‘s
define what virtual reality is and how it differs from augmented reality.

AR is used on a smart device to project a layer of educational text and lesson-

appropriate content on top of a user‘s actual surroundings, providing students with
interactive and meaningful learning experiences. In addition to providing students with
immersive learning experiences, other benefits of virtual reality in education include the
ability to inspire students‘ creativity and spark their imaginations. And this can motivate
them to explore new academic interests. AR and VR in education also helps students
struggling to understand difficult academic concepts. The benefits of virtual reality in
education go beyond academics as well to include cultural competence, the ability to
understand another person‘s culture and values—an important skill in today‘s
interconnected, global society. Growing evidence suggests that AR and VR in
education, as well as the combination of both technologies known as mixed reality, can
improve student outcomes, too. Bringing AR and VR tools into the classroom doesn‘t
have to be expensive. To reap the benefits of virtual reality in education, it is important
for students to use VR equipment safely. VR users often spin around or stride blindly,
ignoring their physical surroundings. A misstep could lead to injury. Educators should
ensure their classrooms‘ physical environments are spacious and safe for VR explorers.
Students should be at least an arm‘s length away from each other and from objects in
the classroom. When possible, use VR content that can be accessed by students sitting
at their desks. VR can bring academic subjects to life, offering students new insights
and refreshing perspectives. But VR can‘t replace human interaction. Learning is
fundamentally a social experience, so VR is best used as a supplemental learning tool.
 ENRICHING OUTPUT

Make a research on the skills that are conducive to innovation.

How can a teacher help develop these skills?

Learning and innovation skills increasingly are being recognized as the skills that
separate students who are prepared for increasingly complex life and work
environments in the 21st century, and those who are not. A focus on creativity, critical
thinking, communication and collaboration is essential to prepare students for the future.
Creativity, critical thinking, and complex problem solving. All three of these skills are
essential to developing and bringing to life a new innovation that solves a real problem
and provides meaningful value. Creativity and innovation are becoming increasingly
important for the development of the 21st century knowledge society. They contribute to
economic prosperity as well as to social and individual wellbeing and are essential
factors for a more competitive and dynamic. Education is seen as central in fostering
creative and innovative skills.

1) the upsurge of new media and technologies that learners use in their everyday lives
can be exploited in creative and innovative ways and contribute to formal and informal
learning;

2) the immersion in this media-rich environment leads new cohorts of students to learn
and understand in different ways, therefore teachers need to develop creative
approaches and find new methods, solutions and practices to grab their attention;

3) creativity is a form of knowledge creation, therefore stimulating creativity has positive

spillover effects onto learning, supporting and enhancing self-learning, learning to learn
and life-long learning skills and competences.
 Creativity and innovation can play an important role in the knowledge society, as
the fruitful interdisciplinary debate presented in this report demonstrates. Creativity is
conceptualised as a skill for all. It is an ability that everyone can develop and it can
therefore be fostered or, likewise, inhibited. Educational actors have the power to unlock
the creative and innovative potential of the young. Creativity has been defined as a
product or process that shows a balance of originality and value. It is a skill, an ability to
make unforeseen connections and to generate new and appropriate ideas. Creative
learning is therefore any learning which involves understanding and new awareness,
which allows the learner to go beyond notional acquisition, and focuses on thinking
skills. It is based on learner empowerment and centeredness. The creative experience
is seen as opposite to the reproductive experience. Innovation is the application of such
a process or product in order to benefit a domain or field - in this case, teaching.
Therefore, innovative teaching is the process leading to creative learning, the
implementation of new methods, tools and contents which could benefit learners and
their creative potential. Moreover, creativity in education has more to do with the
process than with the product, and focuses therefore on the development of thinking
and cognitive skills. Creativity and innovation have strong links with knowledge and
learning. While intelligence does not seem to be a precondition for creativity, research
shows the relevance of previous knowledge, both in terms of knowing how to be
creative and of domain knowledge. Furthermore, creativity is seen by many researchers
as a form of knowledge creation and of construction of personal meaning: it is therefore
an essential skill for enhancing the learning process. Creative learning requires
innovative teaching. Innovative teaching is both the practice of teaching for creativity
and of applying innovation to teaching. Both aspects call for an educational culture
which values creativity and sees it as an asset in the classroom. Teachers are key
figures in constructing a creative climate, but they need support from both policy-
makers and institutions. In particular, curricula and assessment are key areas to be
addressed in order to allow creativity in the classroom. Curricula should undergo a
skilful and thorough development, giving the same importance to every subject, taking
creativity into consideration and defining it coherently throughout the curriculum,
allowing freedom and time for discovery, and taking learners' interests into account.
Assessment should also allow creativity to flourish by valuing it, both at micro, everyday
level and at macro, exam level. The three functions of assessment (diagnostic,
formative and summative) must contribute to the development of both knowledge
acquisition and skills development for learning and creating.
Technologies play a crucial role in learners' lives and can enable educational
change towards an innovative and creative school environment. They could act as a
platform to foster creative learning and innovative teaching and are currently offering a
variety of opportunities for constructive change. Educational systems should also take
into account the empowerment culture brought about by new technologies, putting the
learner at the centre of the learning process. Otherwise, there is the risk that education
policies and systems become irrelevant for students' real and future needs. The co-
existence of several of these factors would give rise to an enabling environment where
creative learning and innovative teaching could blossom.