Personal Blogs

Change or Invention

In a full-throttle, high-velocity improvement workshop, a sharp-suited and high-heeled health service executive told us in uncompromising terms that innovation is exceptionally rare.  Had she attended Latin classes she might have known that to innovate means little more than to change.  Rather than being the exception, it is in fact our norm.

How we understand innovation depends on how we approach the issue at hand.  If you believe that every problem has a solution, you may subscribe to the concept that there are a limited number of ways to achieve the desired outcome.  The “inventive problem-solving” movement known as TRIZ, for instance, proposes that there are only 40 possible solutions to a problem.  

Of course, we would be fooling ourselves if we believed that every problem can be solved.  You don’t have to spend much time in clinical, social or educational practice (or in my case, all three) to realise this.  Think of public health campaigns to tackle smoking, alcohol and obesity.  Little wonder Grint (2008) terms these “wicked problems”.  Here the idea of innovating to change - rather than solve - is more appropriate.

Shiny tools or Sturdy bridges

Whether innovation in education is aimed at solving a conundrum, making a process better or producing something never seen before, we should be clear about the role of Open Educational Resources (OERs).  Are they just shiny, new tools?  In one respect, the technology makes them so, although I argue that the innovation goes beyond their ability to generate novel knowledge dissemination.  OERs are fostering a move from individual to collaborative learning through connectivism.  Indeed, McAndrew and Farrow (2013) describe OER as moving attention "from the resources themselves to the structures and social connections around the content" (p.66).  They also argue that OERs innovate by bridging  the gap between formal and informal learning, thus introducing social capital to the learning process (Mujis et al, 2010). In this respect they are challenging the traditional concept that in higher education you get what you pay for.  In some instances - for example, where links are broken  - they are complementing and augmenting paid courses.  And why shouldn’t they?  

After all, a bridge “works” in both directions.

References

• Grint, K. (2008) ‘Wicked problems and clumsy solutions: the role of leadership’, Clinical Leader, vol. 1, no. 2.
• McAndrew, P. and Farrow, R. (2013) ‘Open education research: from the practical to the theoretical’ in McGreal, R., Kinuthia, W. and Marshall, S. (eds) Open Educational Resources: Innovation, Research and Practice, Vancouver, Commonwealth of Learning and Athabasca University, pp65-78.