Keynote Presentation at the UGC Sponsored Seminar on Innovations in Higher Education at Vijaywada on 7 November 2014.

1. Commonwealth Educational
Media Centre for Asia
Technology Innovations in
Teaching and Learning
By
Sanjaya Mishra
Director, Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia, New Delhi
Presentation at the UGC sponsored seminar on Innovations in higher education held at
Parvathaneni Brahmayya Siddhartha College of Arts & Science, Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh,
India on 7 November 2014

2. What is Innovation?
 The act of starting something new. It could
be a new idea, a new product or a new
process.
 Creativity and change are central to
innovation.
 It is a creative process that advocates
change.
 The change could be radical or incremental.
 However, it is different from invention.
Innovation is idea applied in practice.

3. Innovation Stories
 “Useless Toy”
 Eiffel Tower
 “There is no reason
anyone would want a
computer in their
home.” -- Ken Olsen,
Digital Equipment
Corporation, in 1977
Telephone by Andy Amcee athttp://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/t-mobile-offers-new-home-phone-service/
Eiffel Tower by Benh LIEU SONG at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tour_Eiffel_Wikimedia_Commons.jpg

4. Disruptive Innovation
Some innovations are game changer
 Community College
 Distance Education
 Mobile Technologies

5. Sources of Innovation
Necessity is the mother of inventions
 THE UNEXPECTED (eg. Nutrasweet: accidental)
 INCONGRUITIES (eg. Tata Nano: small car with space)
 PROCESS NEEDS (eg. Assembly line manufacturing;
examination/admission sub-system in education)
 INDUSTRY AND MARKET STRUCTURE (eg. Computer
games)
 DEMOGRAPHICS (eg. Anti-aging creams)
 CHANGES IN PERCEPTION (eg. Healthy life: treadmill)
 NEW KNOWLEDGE (eg. Biotechnology: Seedless grape)
-- Peter Drucker, “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” (1986)

6. Diffusion of Innovation
Many technologists think that advantageous
innovations will sell themselves, that the
obvious benefits of a new idea will be widely
realized by potential adopters, and that the
innovation will therefore diffuse rapidly.
Unfortunately, this is very seldom the case.
Most innovations in fact diffuse at a
surprisingly slow rate. (Everett Rogers)
• Bell curve of diffusion

7. Barriers to Innovation
 Innovation itself (eg. Usability and perceived usefulness)
 Informal and social support structures (eg. family
support, peers, etc)
 Formal environment (eg. Work environment)
 Risk aversion (eg. Fear of failure)
 Leadership (eg. Innovation fostering leadership, distributed
leadership for innovation)
 Shared vision (eg. How teachers think about innovation and
its contribution to overall educational process)
 Change management (eg. Is there a plan to implement
the innovation)

8. Negative Views About Innovations
 This will never work.
 No one will want this.
 It can’t work in practice.
 People won’t understand it.
 This isn’t a problem.
 This is a problem, but no one cares.
 This is a problem and people care, but it’s already
solved.
 This is a problem, and people care, but it will never
make money.
 This is a solution in search of a problem.
Source: The Myths of Innovation by Scott Berkun

9. Some Innovation Examples
 Game to explain “Designing online
learning” (low impact)
 Puzzle to test knowledge about
distance education (low impact)
 Rubrics to evaluate assignments
(failed)
 Online training using Wiki (high
impact)
 Attitude towards eLearning Scale
(high impact)
 Peer Assessment in Online learning
(moderate impact)
 PG Diploma in eLearning (high
impact)

10. Pedagogical Innovations
 Massive Open Online Courses
 Badges to accredit learning
 Learning analytics
 Seamless learning
 Crowd learning
 Digital scholarship
 Geo-learning
 Learning from gaming
 Maker culture
 Citizen inquiry
Source: Open University Innovation Report 2: Innovating Pedagogies, 2013

11. Innovations in Educational
Technology
 Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One
Year or Less
> Flipped Classroom
> Learning Analytics
 Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to
Three Years
> 3D Printing
> Games and Gamification
 Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four
to Five Years
> Quantified Self
> Virtual Assistants
Source: NMC Horizon Report 2014 Higher Education Edition

12. Design Thinking
Curriculum Spaces
Processes
and Tools
Systems
Four Areas to Design
Source: IDEO Design Thinking for Educators, 2012

13. Design Thinking
Discovery
Interpretation
Experimentation
Ideation
Evolution
Design Process
Source: IDEO Design Thinking for Educators, 2012

14. Innovations that YOU can
try
 Use of Social Media in the class (Twitter,
Blogs, and Facebook)
 Use technology in classroom
 Use of LMS
 Use of Tablet

16. Aptus
• Offline access to learning resources, tools.
– Moodle
– Wordpress
– Wikipedia for schools
– Khan Academy
– Own Cloud
 Low cost (< $100)
 Battery-powered

17. Aptus
www.col.org/Aptus
 Mini PC
– Rockchip processor
– 2 GB RAM
– micro SD card: 32 GB
 WiFi router
– Battery powered
– Up to four fours
• Up to 15 users
– radius of 25 metres

18. Some Ways of Thinking about
Innovation
 Doing Different Things Differently (DDTD)
 Tread the Path Less Taken (TPLT)
 Chance Innovation-Planned Innovation
(CIPI)
 Belongingness, Involvement and Thinking
(BIT by BIT)
 Put Innovative Thinking before
Information Technology (IT-IT)

19. Thank You