Resources and Links
from CTE Workshops
INNOVATION: On September 15th 2011 CTE hosted a discussion on innovation at Western. The 20+ attendees examined the first link, Cultivating Innovative Learning Cultures, as a catalyst for exploring the nature of innovation on our campus, and created a working definition of innovation at WSC.
Cultivating Innovative Learning Cultures
Working Definition: Innovation is anything you can do to engage students in a new way.
Several qualifiers to this definition were discussed as follows:
- this includes challenging student expectations
- the institution must be involved
- innovation is personal, not secret but authentic, which is vital to credibility
- we may need a "cultural of failure," the freedom to try innovation without fear of negative consequences/evaluations
- innovation takes place along a continuum from micro to macro
-the institutional ego must support innovation and taking chances on a macro level
-to innovate in these times of changes requires faculty work on a certain level of fearlessness carefully balanced with an understanding of history
-innovation requires support
-we must also bring innovation to the micro level by involving students and asking them to be innovative
Here are a few other sources to refer to as you consider innovation on campus:
Innovative Methods of Teaching
