From June 3-5, Algonquin College hosted the conference. This conference aims to share the experiences of educators across聽the province in the areas of educational technology, the Internet and engagement.

The first keynote speaker, , gave an entertaining talk on the state of higher education today and provided some examples of how to create a more connected classroom, highlighting the transition to more interactive learning in the future. In this wide-ranging talk, he touched on many of the relevant topics that are preoccupying educators today. One particular area he discussed was a software called MeTL, which allows聽live classes to create interactive documents where聽the whole group can share notes and have a discussion during a lecture. This is helpful if students aren鈥檛 clear on a topic or would like to keep up with their instructors’ 聽notes and their own at the same time.

The other keynote address was presented by , host of CBC Radio鈥檚 Spark. She discussed the rise of big data and what聽value educators can bring now that students have so much access to information, primarily critical thinking skills. And with that, digital citizenship and literacy that will allow students to understand the ethics and value this access to information brings. If educators can provide a broader understanding of what these metrics mean, students will be better equipped to deal with the world surrounding them.

The session presented by John Dallas and Karen Spiers was an informative discussion on the project management tools and practices used in developing a fully online program that will be聽jointly launched by two different colleges. Having been through similar projects, it was interesting to see how this group managed the difficulties faced by a large group in disparate locations. They used a project management tool called , which is similar to that is used here at 杏吧原创. This software was primarily used by the key stakeholders in the projects to track content and timelines. One advantage is that files can be uploaded simply by emailing them to a specific address, no need to login! However, a disadvantage is that there is no file version tracking without going back through the history of uploads. For testing and tracking corrections, the testers used聽. The project owners noted and tracked聽the changes and could then make the necessary adjustments. This is a very clean and efficient way to make sure all changes are implemented, as one person is responsible for each part.

The rest of the event was filled with many presentations by instructors from across the province who were sharing their innovative and interesting approaches to using technology to enhance their courses. From discussions on livestreaming lectures to panel discussions on digital badges, there is certainly a great deal of innovation happening in this sector.

Often, when I speak with contract instructors, instructors and faculty, they express surprise when I tell them they are innovative. With last week鈥檚 annual conference being hosted at 杏吧原创, I had a lot of time to think about how we define innovation in education. CNIE is a national organization which, in its mission statement, is defined as 鈥渢he voice for Canada’s distance and open education communities.鈥� The CNIE website has quite a bit on educational technology, framed as a way of ensuring justice, inclusivity and accessibility. New technologies can, and I would say, most certainly should be used to achieve these goals. Innovation in education, however, is not only about using the latest technologies. I think it is the conflation of innovation and new technology that leaves so many educators I speak with, with a sense that they have nothing innovative in their pedagogical toolkits or that they are not creative in their teaching.

Over the last few years that I have been a graduate student, contract instructor and educational developer at 杏吧原创, I have spoken to Legal Studies professors who teach through literature, a Canadian Studies professor who asked students to research key players in political debates and participate in classroom discussions as that person, and professors across several departments who give students the option of submitting non-traditional expressions of their academic arguments. These professors certainly take risks with their students, but rather than , they embrace the learning opportunities for themselves and students that come with taking such risks. These professors are creative, they are innovative and they give their students the opportunity to surprise them through their own creativity. Most importantly, these professors and their students are creative and innovative in ways that do not rely on the use of new technologies.

This is not to say, of course, that new technologies do not offer avenues for innovative teaching. They do. One professor this year gave her students the task of using such technologies to communicate ideas from their various disciplines to one another and the results were amazing! Yet, even at the CNIE conference, there were papers about applying 鈥渙ld practices in non-traditional ways,鈥� ways of using practices like 鈥� long associated with 鈥� without technology, and the use of comic strips in medical education. Being innovative, in other words, is not simply about using digital technologies to communicate with students or to have them communicate with one another. Being innovative is about taking risks by bringing things together that may not have previously been associated with one another in education: comic books and medicine, literature and law, painting and social science. In each of these cases, what emerges as we hear instructors speak about their classes is a sense that using a different medium of expression often offers us new perspectives on the world around us.

When new perspectives become available to us and the students in our classes, the learning environment is enriched by a deeper engagement with the material being taught. What is old becomes new again, it becomes exciting, there are new avenues to explore, new insights to share. Innovation is not just about new technologies. It is, instead, about developing new standpoints, intellectual invigoration and collaborative discovery. It is something we all do in our own ways. It is time we began to recognize and celebrate this.