Think Thoughts is a delightful weekly email by Michael Moe of ThinkEquity Partners LLC thinkequityresearch@thinkequity.com [1] that expresses views from the economy to stock investments. In his most recent posting two centuries of “Ages” were posited as leading up to our current “Innovation Age.” Watt’s steam engine broke us out of the Agrarian age into Edison’s electricity and the Industrial age. Ford’s assembly line gave us the manufacturing age; IBM the Service age; Microsoft, Intel and Netscape the Information age; and Apollo Group and Google the Knowledge age. Finally we arrive in 2007 at the Innovation age. It remains to be seen what new enterprises will lead this emerging “Age.” Or will it be an age where behemoth enterprises are not the all star players? More like the age of agriculture.
I have been a student and a practioner of “innovation theory” for 30 years. I am stuck in the idea the innovation is delivered by endeavors of an individual or a small team. Only when an innovation begins to diffuse into our society do major enterprises and governance organizations play a role. As innovation diffusion ramps-up and grows to maturity, champions are required at each step of the way.
All aspects of innovation are needed to transform K-12 education from itsi [1] legacy roots. Charles Fadel, Global Lead for Education at Cisco Systems and board member of Partnership for 21st Century Skills www.21stcenturyskills.org [2] with Margaret Honey, Wireless Generation and Shelley Pasnik, Education Development Center authored the commentary “Assessment in the Age of Innovation” in the May 23, 2007 Education Week http://www.edweek.org/ew/index.html [3] .
Their message was that for 21st Century learning to take place the student must be able to integrate and use knowledge for innovation, not just learn the basic facts. This means the assessment of learning (NCLB-AIMS) must not dominate and assessment for learning is critical. These assessments must be performance based with critical thinking, problem solving and analytical tasks. Thinking must be visualized. Data must be generated to guide both the teacher and student decisions while learning is taking place. In 1992 the Office of Technology Assessment under the (authorship of John Gibbons who became the White House Science Advisor ) published “Testing in American Schools: Asking the Right Questions” http://www.wws.princeton.edu/ota/disk1/1992/9236_n.html [4] had the transformationi [4] concept technology (eLearningi [4] formative assessmenti [4]) would push well beyond paper-pencil testing by presenting complex tasks and tracking student cognitive processes. The teachers could deliver instructional support to individual students.
These two innovation examples and a host of other data indicate that the innovation age will be played out not at the behemoth level of manufacturing to knowledge, but by billions of innovators. Like the primitive age of agriculture. Innovators will ply their trade with amazing tools. The hoe and digging stick will be replaced with WiKi’s and the Web. The teacher and student will innovate continuously as constructive and exploratory learning is adapted to each student’s cognitive need and motivational drive.