Pages

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Innovation Policy in the European Union

s
Innovation policy at the pan-European and national levels in Europe today is facing important challenges and decision points. The relative absence of commercialization of research outcomes remains a major issue across Europe, as does the need to put university-industry relations on a new footing. Of particular concern are the issues that are not being discussed in Europe with regards to the future health and vitality of the European innovation system, including university reform and the chronic under-performance of European industry in the application of new ICT technologies for strategic advantage and productivity improvements. This seminar, led by Dr. Burton Lee of the Stanford School of Engineering, provides a broad overview of the state of innovation policy in Europe today, and where it appears to be headed in the next 2-3 years. This event is moderated by Stephen Ezell, Senior Analyst, ITIF.
-by Olivia

Section 7: Policy & role of ecology in sustaining innovation

CN012 is a co-educational secondary school in the New Territories of Hong Kong. This practice was first implemented in 2000.
There are 27 classes with a total of 996 students and 54 teachers in this school. Most of the students come from lower middle class families in the neighboring public housing. Two physics teachers, one laboratory technician and 35 Secondary 6 students were involved in this innovation. This practice was mainly implemented in Physics lessons. It addresses the importance of engaging students in designing some experiments that verify a mathematical model in scientific phenomena which is related to the curriculum content,
In this case, “Teachers told students that the five-year policy ‘Information Technology for Learning in a New Era Five Year Strategy’ boosted the implementation of IT in school and the use of IT in teaching and learning in this school. It was mentioned by the IT team that an additional teacher was granted to the school under the ICT scheme of the Quality Education Fund. This teacher took up part of the responsibility for managing the school network system and teaching teachers how to use some of the software. Furthermore, teachers also told students that the equipment for this project was also granted by the Quality Education fund.”
From the case, we can find during the last 10 years, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have provided a wealth of new technological opportunities, with the rapid deployment of the Internet. An ideal ICT policy should be sustainable at a national as well as at a school level. It should be cost-effective, cater to school goals, improve student achievement, enhance teacher quality and enable users to adapt to change.
While the government plays the most important role in the formulation of ICT policy, it decides how countries are able to take advantage of the technical opportunities available to them and exploit them for good. And investment is constrained to be the important factor to influence the development of ICT in education. Besides the investment, public concern also is another important factor.
1. how to combine the ICT resources and teaching methods
2. how to develop digital learning standards.
3. how related staff to support the work.
Moreover, it is also very important to balance the point between the demands of improving practice over time and pressing public concerns such as accountability and equity, between the cycle of change in technology and the cycle of change in schools, between the skills of tomorrow and the skills of today.
The picture below shows the ICT framework.


From the picture, we can clearly see that the education practice base on three basic resources, the software such as a management system, the hardware like labs with a lot of computers or multimedia equipment, and the last is the human resource, for example the teacher who had be trained or an experienced the principal. This is the inside circle which called execution circle, these three points are the basic force to promote the education practice improvement.
And outside circle I called it powerful circle, this means the three points have the strong power or ability to influence education practice improvement.
Investment is constrained to be the important factor to influence the development of ICT in education. There are three key themes which are used as rationales for investment in educational technology.
1. Technology as a tool for addressing challenges in teaching and learning. Teacher of nowadays teacher, technology provides a new approach to solve the teaching problem that makes the students more effective in study. And spend less money than usual.
2. Technology as a change agent. Regardless of what is going on today, a change agent has a vision of what could or should be and uses that as the governing sense of action. IT makes the future be a much better vision, without technology the change agent can lose their way.
3. Technology as a central force in economic competitiveness. With the new IT developing, new innovation will be bring out, like ipad, iphone, that will change all the worlds' economic, at the same time, IT in education also will be influenced. New competitiveness will be rounded by IT. IT will take the position of traditional equipment, to be the new, powerful competitiveness

All in all, an ideal ICT policy should balance improving teaching practice with pressing public concerns, in that way, the circle above will have a complete framework system. And with the all important factor, the education practice will reach to a new level.
========================================= By Group

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

session 6:School context and innovation - Changing Education Paradigms



This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award.

-by Olivia

Monday, November 7, 2011

China vs. U.S. School context and Innovation


Here is a video about the difference in school context and innovation between China and America. By wcomparation,I think we can get a deeper understanding about the topic in this session.

By:Makino

session 6--School context and innovation



This session is about School context and innovation and can be divided into several parts: School background,School strategies,Principal leadership,School ICT infrastructure and Government and community support.
We group first analyzed the example from the SITES-ME. We forcused on the ES001: Cooperrative Project Using Telecommunication Tools to Study the Climate and Weather. Four schools participated in this innovative co-operative project. Every weekday, pupils from different schools had to share introduce meteorological data in the Internet to them with the partner schools. Then they finally carried out comparative research projects on weather variables. This project had various objectives, from conceptual learning, mastery of use of different measurement tools, handling and making sense of data to facilitation of cooperative learning with virtual cooperative groups. Teachers provided suggestions and guidance for students learning, whereas students working in groups made the final decisions of what they wanted to learn and how they were going to do. The school background of this case is a strong educational vision and experience in Innovation and ICT use. This is also a case with strategies in establishing new teams for implementation, with visionary leader, with mobile computing capability and student access beyond class contact and general government policy support appeared to be relatively emergent in terms of teachers' and students' roles.
Besides, we have done some reach about the School context and innovation of mainland China and found that most school backgrounds of the schools in mainland China are council schools and alignment with government education policy. The schools forcus more on exam scores than ICT or innovation and have a traditional pedagogical practices. Though some of the principals agree with the innovation in education, they pay more attention to that if the students can pass the Matriculation Exam. This schools do have the ICT infrastructure but the use of ICT in education is just a face job and teachers care more about publishing papers rather than using ICT in teaching. Also, the government has the policy to support the innovation in school. However, as the college entrance examination system in mainland is not change, principals and teachers still prefer the traditional pedagogy.
Here is a web side about characteristics of the Higher Education in Mainland China: http://international.vlex.com/vid/characteristics-education-mainland-taiwan-228050335

=========================================
By Group

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

session 5--Innovation Practice - Course at Fisher College of Business


by Olivia

session 5--Curriculum innovative practices


A school curriculum is intended to provide children and young people with the knowledge and skills required to lead successful lives. Today, there is growing concern that the taught curriculum needs to be reconsidered and redesigned. The use of the word ‘innovation’ in discussions about the school curriculum and classroom teaching practice has become wide spread. It is the keyword in much policymaking across all public services.
What is a curriculum for at this time? It comprises a challenging selection of subjects that help children and young people understand the world. It highlights skills necessary for learning throughout life, as well as for work, and for one’s personal development and well-being. But a curriculum is also political. Decisions about ‘what’s in’ and ‘what’s out ’ change from time to time depending on political needs and aspirations. A curriculum fundamentally establishes a vision of the kind of society we want in the future, and the kind of people we want in it: it decides what the ‘good life’ is for individuals and for society as a whole. As such, it’s not always possible for everyone to agree on what a curriculum should be. It could be said that the most significant curriculum innovation in recent English history was the establishment of the National Curriculum in1988, a political decision that still sustains understandable debate and argument today

Everyone involved in education recognizes that it is critical to design and deliver a curriculum that inspires and challenges all learners and prepares them well for life in the 21st century.

The questions that helped shape the project were:
1. What are we trying to achieve through the curriculum?
2. How do we organize learning in order to achieve it?
3. How will we know that we have achieved our aim(s)?
4. How can this drive for curriculum change best be led for success?
Activity related to the project has demonstrated how the power to innovate engages leaders involved in curriculum development in revisiting their thinking about education and school purpose.
It has also required that they reframe their practice as leaders of learning. It has stimulated the creativity of school leaders, staff and pupils and promoted key, systemic shifts towards a curriculum that is more flexible, responsive and relevant to the needs and lives of learners.
Among the project’s key findings was a clear recognition that there is no one model for success, because context matters. Each participating school adopted an approach to leading curriculum innovation that was right for its particular situation.
Moreover, rather than tackling this task in isolation, participating schools were able to benefit from the thinking and practice of their network colleagues and so were able to articulate and shape their ideas in a way that, as one project participant put it, “enabled us to bring back practical solutions to our school in even better shape than when we took them out”

-by Olivia

session 5--Curriculum Innovative Practices

Here is a website about the innovative curriculum in primary school. It contains lots of innovative practices in education. Hope it can help. In this case, the ICT act an important role in curriculum innovation.
http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/projects/gp_award/index.php?category_id=27

Project Summary:
For several years the school had put ICT at the forefront of its development plans. Funds had been used to purchase a wide range of hardware including one computer to every 3 children and interactive whiteboards and digital projectors.
However, even though ICT was being used effectively by teaching and support staff to enhance lessons, it was felt that its use could be developed further. Following a review of the curriculum it was decided to focus on the use of ICT to extend and develop creativity across the curriculum. ICT became central to the programmes of study as opposed to an addition.
As a consequence the children became more involved and excited about the possibilities of new technology to develop their studies. They now regularly produce Powerpoint presentations and have established Asmall Radio which broadcasts to the whole school. But perhaps, most exciting of all, they were able to monitor the bluetits as they nested in the nest box fitted with the digital camera.
The staff and pupils of the school were thrilled to receive the best practice award as an acknowledgement of their achievements.
The impact of the project in pupil's learning:
  • The use of ICT has a tremendous impact on pupil learning. Children enjoy using all forms of ICT, it provides motivation and supports independent working.
  • ICT has allowed a greater degree of creativity and given pupils more freedom to develop their interests within given topics.
  • ICT supports the curriculum and is used to enhance and extend learning.
  • More pupils use the website and internet for homework.
  • E-assessment is used to rigorously track progress and identify areas for development.