Innovation is a hot topic in education, but how do we make it happen on a practical level? Moreover, how do we ensure that learning innovations promote engaged, meaningful, transformative learning experiences with measurable and sustainable outcomes? This hands-on, interactive session introduces approaches to identifying personal and organizational drivers of innovation in learning environments and visual mapping techniques for planning and developing successful and sustainable results. Understanding an individual’s or organization’s capacity for innovation is essential to identifying drivers of innovation, promoting abundant ideation, and managing promising concepts and moving them through the innovation cycle from ideas to action.

This session will empower participants to:

• determine personal, team, and organization capacities for learning innovation
• identify drivers of and barriers to innovation in learning environments
• use Learning Environment Modeling to map, plan, and develop innovation initiatives
• assess learning innovation operations and outcomes

Innovation is a hot topic in education, but many who aspire to reimagine, renew, even revolutionize learning, projects, and processes at the personal, team, or organizational level find it challenging to make innovation happen on a practical level. This is due not only to the many components in the innovation landscape that need to be understood, but also to the need for an effective, strategic approach for communicating one’s vision and for decision-making in mapping, planning, and implementing new ideas. It is also essential to ensure that learning innovations promote engaged, meaningful, transformative learning experiences with measurable and sustainable outcomes rather than simply encourage change for the sake of change. This interactive session will guide participants through the process of profiling learning environment innovation landscapes in order to identify drivers of meaningful innovation, promote abundant ideation, and manage promising concepts and move them through the innovation cycle from ideas to action.

Participants will complete a Learning Environment Innovation Inventory (LEii) and explore how its findings influence the innovation cycle of generating and identifying promising ideas and moving them through experimental and development phases that culminate in successful and sustainable operations. They will also learn to leverage their personal innovation landscape profile to maximize capacity for and bridge potential barriers to innovation by using the award-winning design technique Learning Environment Modeling (LEM) to plan effective implementation strategies for new ideas.

LEM is a revolutionary, visual, tangible, interactive technique for reimagining and innovating learning environment design. This approach serves as a powerful tool to innovate and energize learning in any environment—online, traditional, or blended; academic or corporate. LEM offers an engaging, enjoyable, and easy-to-learn visualization method for communicating key components in learning environments, just as architectural blueprints communicate building plans. It allows designers to create an idea canvas and invite others to engage in the design experience by rearranging and adding to designs and capture ideas as they evolve, all the while inspiring creativity and innovation. As such, it serves as a catalyst for effective communication, decision making, and collaboration, eliminates barriers to and fosters innovation, and inspires creativity.

LEM disrupts the flow of inefficient miscommunication and allows effective idea sharing by way of a simplified language—Learning Environment Modeling Language (LEML)--that consists of four primary features: Building Blocks, Contexts, Actions, and Notations. These components can be assembled in limitless configurations to represent any learning environment imaginable. Intentional, strategic, coordinated implementation of LEM helps educators advance the overarching design goal of creating engaging learning experiences and improving learner success, thereby advancing innovation in learning.

Participants will:

• complete a Learning Environment Innovation Inventory
• consider examples of proven models for innovation
• learn and use LEM and LEML to develop an idea for innovation
• obtain feedback LEMs from workshop participants and facilitators

 This session will empower participants to:

• determine personal, team, and organization capacities for learning innovation
• identify drivers of and barriers to innovation in learning environments
• use Learning Environment Modeling to map, plan, and develop innovation initiatives
• assess learning innovation operations and outcomes

Christensen, C. (2016). The innovators dilemma: When new technologies cause great firms to fail.

Couros, G. (2015). The innovator's mindset: Empower learning, unleash talent, and lead a culture of creativity.

Johnson, S. (2010). Where good ideas come from.

Llopis, G. & Eber, J. (2017). The innovation mentality: Six strategies to disrupt the status quo and reinvent the way we work.

Quinn, C. (2014). Revolutionize learning & development: Performance and innovation strategy for the information age.

Spence, J. (2009). Awesomely simple: Essential strategies for turning ideas into action.

50-Minute Interactive Session

Launching Transformative Learning