Just because it’s new does that make it innovative?

The past few months I have consciously stepped back from social media and made an effort to read more widely.  And rather the snippets of articles or blogs I was consuming to instead pick up books.  Rather than reading the next teaching/learning edu hot pick of the moment I found myself in my local library glancing at the shelves, random books selected and picked through when I have a spare 10 minutes.

What this new habit has given me is time, brain space to think and ponder rather than consume ideas and options without giving myself the chance to percolate and build, break or bin them.

The last few days I have found my eyes wandering back to twitter, the one place that used to hold so much of my attention and now the lure seems weak.  The fragments of edu chats Ive spotted seem to resemble the same 140 characters I was hungrily reading two years ago as a newly minted teacher heading into the trenches*.

I came across a chat with a question asking – what is the difference in an ‘innovative’ classroom compared to a traditional – and glanced at responses, beginning to question what I would call innovative.

Answers seemed to display a bitter taste of the term traditional and a burning need to get to this innovative wonderland of  technolour and whiteboard table awesomeness.

Its got me thinking – Is this search for the new innovative thing closing the doors on other options?

Are we all scrambling to hold open as many doors as possible incase we may need to step into them that we are simultaneously not doing anything or at any depth to make an impact anyway.

..to be continued

*as our lecturer would continually remind us dredging up visions of war torn classrooms strewn with debris