The Innovator’s Mindset

After reading the book, “The Innovator’s Mindset,” by  George Couros, I learned quite a few things. I will outline a few of them here. First of all I learned that during teacher’s college where I found out that to help kids learn we had to engage them but I needed to keep learning because that was not enough. In this book George Couros explained that it is important to help the students feel empowered not engaged. This means that teachers need to give kids the knowledge and skills to pursue passions, interests and the future. It isn’t enough for students to feel engaged which means being involved in the learning process. They need to be able to use their knowledge and teachers need to unleash the students’ potential to allow them to explore and make meaningful connections to the content to deepen their learning. In other words teachers need to create opportunities for students to explore their passions so that they may feel empowered. We can do this by providing ample time for collaboration and experimenting to foster new or better ideas.

Secondly, I learned that technology needs to be used appropriately. We need to use our devices in a transformative way. For example, it is important to use a device in a way that was not done before to keep oneself in the innovative mindset. Being innovative means to let creativity come to life.

Other important ideas that I came away from “The Innovator’s Mindset” with are the characteristics of an innovative mindset. Some of these characteristics I am well aware of but to use them in tandem helps stay innovative. The characteristics are empathetic, problem finders, risk takers, networked, observant, creators, resilient, and reflective. To ask myself “what is best for the students?” becomes the starting point from which I can create innovative learning experiences.