innovationdurffl

8/6/2019 InnovationDurffL

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Running head: DEFENSE OF INNOVATION 1

Defense of Innovation:

Fostering Global Collaborations

Lisa Durff

Walden University



DEFENSE OF INNOVATION 2

Defense of Innovation:

Fostering Global Collaborations

The International Society for Technology in Education released a set of standards for

teachers and students in 2007. The communication and collaboration performance indicator

states, ³Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively,

including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

Students develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other

cultures.´ Global collaborations merely refer to those connections, communications, and

collaborations with peers in other countries around the globe.

Innovation Potential

Fostering global collaborations using technological devices is easily organized using those

very same technological devices for both student participation and teacher grading. Working with

global partners can further organize the attainment of curricular objectives into project-based

learner, often referred to as PBL. There currently exist complete projects for teachers to join that

involve a minimum of teacher time and student work online can notify teachers using really simple

syndication otherwise known as RSS. I like to refer to RSS as really seriousstressrelief.

Justification

The advantages to emphasizing global connections is they are free of charge and it

engages students in learning. The disadvantage is that asynchronous communications can be

difficult for middle school and high schoollearners to grasp and many teachers resist this

innovation.I have found primary learners accept asynchronous connections better than do




secondary students. A great example of this innovation will be presented next weekat the ISTE

conference entitled, ³Flat Classroom Projects: Collaborate with the World Now!´

http://tinyurl.com/3utt2t4

Of the three innovations I identified as potentially impacting my school, I think the

electronic books would be the most difficult to adopt and this innovation is not widely diffused at

any educational level in the northeastern United States where I live. I think the mobile devices

would be difficult to diffuse just yet, but the time is soon for successful diffusion. Fostering

global connections would be the easiest to diffuse, as many educators are already familiar with

offline connections such as pen pals.

As previously mentioned, the national education standards published by ISTE in

2007stipulate thatstudents develop cultural understanding and global awareness. I believe

diffusion of this innovative idea into all classes would engage students in learning our curricular

objectives and prepare students for the world into which they will graduate.

R esearch

Ouimet (2008) identified global awareness as a workplace skill that students need. Knox

(2006) determined that company workers at Microsoft (and by extension other global companies)

need 21st

century skills including global competencies (p.15). The Kappa Delta Pi Record (2009)

suggests several ways in which teachers can incorporate global awareness into the curriculum.

In summary, my presentation will include the innovation itself, i.e. global connections. I

will use the words of several master teachers to convey the importance of this innovation. I will

recommend a specific timeline for diffusion of the innovation into our classrooms and will




empower teachers to embed global collaboration into their curriculums by partnering them with a

teacher in another country that has more experience embedding global collaborations, connect all

teachers in an education network/bookmarking site, and connect teachers to each other, the

administrators, and me via the messenger software already partially in use at our school.




References

Global Awareness in Your Classroom. (2009). Kappa Delta Pi Record, 45(2), 66-67.

International Society for Technology in Education (2007).

National educational technology standards for students, second edition. (2007). Washington,

DC: ISTE.

Knox, A. (2006). Why American business demands twenty-first century learning: A company

perspective. New Directions for Youth Development , 2006 (110), 31-37.

Ouimet, J. A., & Pike, G. R. (2008). Rising to the challenge: Developing a survey of workplace

skills, civic engagement, and global awareness. New Directions for Institutional Research,

200871-82. doi:10.1002/ir.263

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