Description
Creating change isn’t easy, but it’s not magic. There’s a process.
The pace of technology innovation is scary, especially if you’re always on the wrong side of it, trying to react to it, or ride it, rather than lead it. How can you stay ahead of chaos and be the change you’re passionate about? This course is an immersion in the global learning technologies marketplace with particular emphasis on innovation and opportunity development – about confidently becoming the champion for in-school projects, district initiatives, institutional programs, nonprofit campaigns, or startup ventures. Remarkably, the process is the same for them all.
Don’t worry, this is not a ‘business’ course. We’ll dive into the latest emerging technologies, and all kinds of opportunities arising from them, to build a critical framework for how to be an innovator, not a CEO. If you have lots of business experience, or none, you’re in the right place if you’re excited by the future of learning.
ETEC 522’s instructor is David Vogt, a serial entrepreneur and innovation leader. The course was conceived because too few educators believe they can innovate – they leave it to engineers and MBAs – which is one reason why too many ventures involving learning and technology fail. And even if you’re not inspired to be a changemaker, take this course if you want to understand the innovation process well enough to have it work for you.
Learning Objectives
Education needs more inventors, more changemakers, and better innovation. The learning objectives of 522 can therefore be summarized as follows:
- Savvy: A working knowledge of innovation processes impacting successful change;
- Acumen: Critical viability assessment of emerging products, services and ventures;
- Leadership: Strategies to ‘pitch’ and champion change involving learning technologies; and
- Initiative: Confident proactivity relating to the opportunity horizon of education.
Your success in this course will require sound research, independent thought, creative synthesis, teamwork, and focus. Not surprisingly, these are also key attributes for an innovator.
Activities
ETEC 522 deliberately explores and experiments with emerging technologies, operating in a hybrid of the Canvas LMS and WordPress blog.
The course employs role playing (you will act as professional analysts and entrepreneurs); participatory scholarship (you are co-researchers, not students); collective curation (everyone actively authors, reviews, rates, and recommends content); regenerative curriculum (every cohort self-selects and authors their own curriculum, building upon the work of previous cohorts); and open publishing (your work will be published live to the web).
ETEC 522 begins with a Boot Camp (a 4-week immersion in the fundamentals of innovation), followed by an Opportunity Fair (an 8-week team-driven opportunity assessment of emerging technologies), and ends with a week-long Venture Forum (students ‘pitch’ an original venture of their own design).
Readings & Resources
All of the research and analysis of previous cohorts is immediately available on the course weblog, along with leading market research works, pertinent academic literature, and a ‘pitch pool’ of venture pitches created by real-world changemakers, including past students. No additional textbooks are required.
Assignments & Assessment
The course is assessed on four facets of participation:
- an individually-published Analyst Report on a specific existing product, service, venture or market of interest (25%)
- a group Opportunity Forecast of an emerging learning technologies market (25%)
- an individually-published Venture Pitch for a new venture designed by the student (25%)
- and a Participation Portfolio (25%) summarizing contributions to the course.
Your major works will be professional in context, not academic – they will be authored to serve an open, global audience of education professionals like yourself. You will be able to distinguish yourself via creativity, critical thought, design, and presentation.
Minor course topic, activity, reading/resource, and assignment details may change from year to year.