Learning Design: The Ceaseless World of Innovation

     Innovation is a term I’ve constantly heard since my undergraduate years, which is bound to happen when one attends and eventually works for a university that has “Innovation” as part of its mission and goals. When I chose to pursue the Learning Design Path at Arizona State University, I knew that it was a term that would always come up. However, going through the motions of the program, it’s more than just knowing the importance of an innovative mindset; it’s also knowing why it matters for a learning designer and their crucial role in the digital world and the emerging technologies that surround it.

    I first heard about Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation Theory from a previous Learning Design Class, where we were also encouraged to determine where we fell on the scale. I initially thought that I fit in the Early Majority, but I realized that it was my mind and body having become robotically routined after years in the traditional classroom. I was in a team with teachers who were used to their routines or only adapted changes and curricula that were either approved by the district or recommended by trusted peers—the Late Majority and Laggards if you will. Given the strictness of the district, as well as being surrounded by the “right” categories of the theory, my mind was conditioned to adopt ideas until they were tried by another person, typically my colleagues, hence the self-placement in the Early Majority.

    Becoming an online teacher lifted my burdens and opened up a sense of mental liberation to explore different educational technology tools. With my newfound freedom, I realized that my natural tendencies were really that of an Innovator; something that may have always been the case but was suppressed for so long. When I was a traditional teacher, I always wanted to incorporate new ideas I obtained from teacher influencers on YouTube and articles on innovations in the education field. In 2015, I received a grant to purchase Chromebooks for my students, so I began a blended learning model in my classroom where students spent part of their learning time with me and then learned through educational software on their Chromebooks—something no other teacher did in my school. I was never entirely sure if that was the Innovator side of me or just someone who got bored with routine. In my current job as an online teacher, I’m exposed to new types of learning tools to engage students and make it interactive for them, and I’m always seeking ideas in the event that the tools we’re using expire due to obsolescence or loss of license. For example, as an alternative to the educational tool NearPod, I introduced colleagues to a similar tool called PearDeck, an extension that you can add to Google Slides so that when you present to students, they receive a copy of the slide presentation to draw, write, and do other things, and teachers can see their progress. Unlike NearPod, PearDeck allows teachers to give private feedback to students, and work on the slides they made, and unless one has the paid version of NearPod, one can’t save all their lessons on the site, while slides with PearDeck will save automatically in their drive. They loved it, being Innovators and Early Adopters themselves (we are online teachers after all). Likewise, they share ideas with me and I’m eager to try them. We hold monthly meetings that tackle concerns in distance learning and discuss new tools and current tools we can use to tackle those concerns, so sharing and receiving ideas is almost part of the job. It’s a never-ending chain of exchanging ideas, trying them, and passing them on.

    Reflecting on my experiences and my position on the curve, I realized that being surrounded by the right people is essential unless one is clever enough to present their ideas independently. With that thought, I can’t imagine working in a better place and being in a better graduate program because I’m encouraged to try new ideas and test them out, and that’s exciting for me; for majorities and laggards, it could be anxiety-riddling. The field of learning design and technology is, and always has been, one of the trailblazers for innovation and change, and I personally chose a career in the field to actively learn new ideas and adapt them to my work and other ventures.

    As I continue on this journey, I intend to always be open to new ideas and formulate new ones. The challenge I foresee someday is a generational mindset. Ten or twenty years from now, I could reach a point where I’m well-acquainted with tools that have sustained and improved over time, and I might perceive new ideas from the younger generation more as a disruption than an innovation unless proven otherwise, turning me into an Early or Late Majority. I feel that’s the nature of age, so I’m mentally preparing for the inevitability of it by maintaining a growth mindset—embracing change, being open to new ideas and trying them, basically reminding myself of what I tell people about anything new: “Don’t knock it till you try it.” The main question I would also ask, rhetorically or to the innovators, is how these new ideas or tools are beneficial in the long run because there might be answers I wouldn’t have thought of, and it opens new ways of thinking and being flexible about these ideas.

    In terms of guiding learning design and technological integrations, I hope to be a role model for emergent technologies by continuing the pattern of discovering tools, setting a time to share new ideas, testing them, and so on. Right now, AI is the biggest emerging technology, and it’s been fascinating seeing its integration with existing software like Adobe and Canva, currently, I’m enjoying trying them (notably Photoshop). I’ve also taken a course on Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT in conjunction with applying these prompts to Canva or Google Slide presentations, so that is currently my education, besides everything else in the learning design graduate program. While AI is the latest trend, I’m certain that there will be more that arise in the future; I can’t even imagine what they will be. With my “innovator” mindset, I intend to embrace it with the heart of a child excited about the latest video game and the actions of a budding learning designer, prepared to eagerly apply them in various programs.