What in the world is Crowd Accelerated Innovation? I kept asking myself as I looked at the assignment over and over again. "I hope this isn't some boring article about some boring idea." To my surprise reading Chris Anderson's article on Crowd Accelerated Innovation was quite interesting. He immediately pulled me in when he talked about dancing and the 6 year old boy who mastered the dance moves on the video. I was hooked. I kept thinking, "what does this have to do with Crowd Accelerated Innovation and what is it anyway?" After reading some more the question was answered in the article. It is exactly what it means. A new idea or method being quickly spread by people. Aha! Ok, now I get it. The first thing that came to mind is Youtube. When I was growing up and wanted to learn the latest dances and I tuned into videos on a daily basis. I watched, and practiced. When I mastered some 80's moves I went to a school dance or party and showed my stuff. Crowd Accelerated Innovation is nothing new. It just the format in which people learn the new ideas. We have the internet now and it gives people access to many different ideas, skills, and methods to practice, learn and show. That is exactly what happened in the youtube videos posted by Dr. Umpstead on the technology vs non technology lessons. I watched the videos thinking focused on the fact that I had completed the assignment and was truly looking for the end result to be that technology lesson plans proved that they engage, show improvement in practice, and higher test scores. The video on spelling didn't give me the expectations I was looking for but it did agree with the overall big idea that I was left with when I completed the assignment. When I completed the assignment I concluded that by intergrading technology with the knowledge of skills teacher bring to the table is a winning combination. I also saw the students proudly say that it wasn't best use of technology for the skill being taught but it made learning fun, and engaging. So in this case when there is a crowd (people with a common interest) and a light (Youtube videos, Internet, School) and desire (test scores, comments on a blog, survey from a class) we have accomplished Crowd Accelerated Innovation.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Adrion,
ReplyDeleteI also was hooked when I first read about Chris Anderson's Crowd Accelerated Innovation and the dancing child. I thought that it was so neat that these kids and adults too were teaching themselves to do anything. Dancing, playing the piano, whatever. I have taught myself to do a few things by watching You Tube as well. I just got a new iPhone and had to look up a tutorial on how to do almost everything seeing as how I had a Blackberry for about all of my life and was so used to that! I definitely need to get some more of this in my classroom helping the students to become engaged and have fun with learning. I will already have my crowd, my students, and then I just need a light and them to have a desire and we will be all set! I can't wait to share what I have been learning in this class with my students next year!