This document outlines a course on technology-based innovation in education, emphasizing the understanding of innovations, stakeholder roles, and the potential of technology to advance curriculum reform. It includes discussions on various educational approaches, including open educational resources and online courses, while reflecting on their impact on marginalized communities. Additionally, it highlights the barriers to innovation and calls for group activities to explore characteristics of innovation in various social contexts.

1. Technology-based
Innovation
[Part 1]
Dr Palitha Edirisingha
Institute of Learning Innovation
University of Leicester
106, New Walk
Leicester LE1 7EA
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Tel: +44 (0)116 252 3753
Mobile: +44 (0)7525 246592
Email: pe27@le.ac.uk
First used in February 2014
in an MA course

2. Part 1
The foundation
Key ideas

3. Learning outcomes
1. Develop an understanding of the features of
innovations through technology.
2. Critical consideration of the role played by
different stakeholders in promoting technology-
based learning innovations and their social,
political and commercial implications.
3. Creative exploration of the potential of
technology-based innovations to meet the
curriculum / school-reform agenda.

4. Introduction
In these two linked sessions, we will consider a number of educational approaches
that are based on technology-based innovations. We will reflect on what we mean by
innovations through technologies.
We will begin by reviewing the development of learning technologies from a historical
and social perspective and move on to look at the role played by national and
international organisations (e.g., UNESCO, World Bank, European Commission) in
promoting technology-based learning innovations.
A number of initiatives and approaches that we will be looking at include Open
Educational Resources (OERs), Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), distance
learning initiatives, learning in 3-D virtual words and through computer games.
These initiatives will be examined to understand the extent to which these help or
hinder the access to learning opportunities for marginalised groups and communities,
the pedagogical principles underpinning these approaches, and how we might apply
some of these approaches to fulfil the learning / curriculum reform objectives that you
are interested in your own context.

5. Innovation?
What does it mean?
How do we know something (some approach
to education) is an innovation?
How do we know that we are talking about an
innovation and not something else?

6. Group activity 1 [ 15 minutes]
• Work in groups of 3 – 4
• Think about an ‘innovation’ in any area of
social life, work, technology (not necessarily in
education)
• Justify why you consider it an ‘innovation’.
What do you think are the characteristics of
an innovation?
• Share your ideas with the rest of the class.

7. Responses from the class
New ideas. In China. Educational reform, quality education, new curriculum reform.
‘no exams’. Other forms of assessment. different from the past. New. Impact.
Pedagogical change. How lessons are presented. Distance learning. In China. Less
attention on exams, focus on learning. Change of assessment. innovation include …
can we consider change in educational methods as innovation?
Innovation is change peoples social life, make easier to create new work spaces, new
demands, new requirements, challenges for humanity. Technology: computers is one.
Internet. Big companies change work space behaviour, entertainment space at work,
gym, including leisure activities, new ways to think human resource management,.
Language innovation – dialects accents communication easier. Example. 12 yr
education system. Previously 10 yr, 11 yrs. Lengthening compulsory education.
Bring something into existence, something that didn’t exisit before. Green schools in
Indonesia, hole-in-the-wall project in India, Khan Academy. Natural resources. People
from other countries come to learn. Created for communities in Bali. Classroom made
from bamboo.

8. Characteristics of innovations
Reading activity:
Rogers (2003, pp. 12 – 16) [first edition 1995].

9. From ‘Invention’ to ‘Innovation’
Senge, P. (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation.
[The following text is from http://www.amazon.fr/The-Fifth-Discipline-Practice-Organization/dp/0385517254]
INVENTION
In December 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Wilbur and Orville Wright proved that powered flight was
possible. Thus was the airplane invented; but it would take more than thirty years before commercial aviation
could serve the general public.
INNOVATION
Replicable at practical costs. And reliable.
An idea moves from an invention to an innovation when ‘diverse “component technologies” come together.’
Emerging from isolated developments in separate fields of research, these components gradually form an
ensemble of technologies that are critical to one another’s success. Until this ensemble forms, the idea, though
possible in the laboratory, does not achieve its potential in practice.
The DC-3, for the first time, brought together five critical component technologies that formed a successful
ensemble.
They were: the variable-pitch propeller, retractable landing gear, a type of lightweight molded body
construction called “monocque,” a radial air-cooled engine, and wing flaps. To succeed, the DC3 needed all five;
four were not enough.

10. Barriers to innovation?
• The QWERTY phenomenon. Papert, 1993, p. 32 –
33; 187.
Other? [responses from the class]
• school management
• Government policy
• Not familiar with the idea
• Mind-set
• Finances
• Traditional social, cultural factors

11. Technology-based learning
innovations
What are they?
How do we characterise those as
innovations?
What are the criteria?

12. Group activity 2 [20 minutes]
Selwyn (2010, p. 3-4) on the visit to a local
primary school.
Imagine if you were part of the group that
visited this school. What might be your top 3
take-away lessons from (by reading Selwyn’s
description of) this visit?

13. [To be continued …]
[Session 10, 4th Feb 2014]

14. References and further reading
Edirisingha, P. (2013) The Role of Technology in Education [available as an iBook and a PDF file from the
Blackboard site for Contemporary Issues module].
John, P., and Wheeler, S. (2008) The Digital Classroom: Harnessing Technology for the Future of Learning and
Teaching. London: Routledge.
OEDC (2007) Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources.
http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/givingknowledgeforfreetheemergenceofopeneducationalresources.ht
m, [Accessed 06.12.2013].
Papert, S. (1993). Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas. New York (NY): Basic Books.
Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of Innovations (5th Ed). London: Free Press.
Salmon, G., and Edirisingha, P. (2008) Podcasting for Learning in Universities. Maidenhead: Open University
Press and SRHE.
Selwyn, N. (2013). Education in a Digital World: Global Perspectives on Technology and Education. London: Routledge.
Selwyn, N. (2011). Schools and Schooling in the Digital Age: A critical analysis. London: Routledge.
Senge, P. (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation. Random House.
The Hewlett Foundation (2013) Open Educational Resources: Breaking the Lockbox on Education [A White
Paper].http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/open-educational-resources-breaking-lockbox-education
[Accessed on 06.12.2013].
Younie, S., and Leask, M. (2013) Teaching with Technologies: The Essential Guide. Maidenhead, Open University Press.

15. Thank you!
hope you have enjoyed the
class 
If you have any questions or suggestions to
improve / contribute to this session /
presentation, please contact me at:
pe27@le.ac.uk
@palithaed
+44 (0)116 252 3753
+44 (0)7525 246 592