OECD: Innovation Strategy for Education & Training

The OECD strategy and training reports can be incredibly useful for various groups interested in education. Individual teachers can easily access the reports to gain an understanding of what is happening / being adopted on an international level as well as on a domestic level. These types of reports allow for a look inside of different classrooms to look at the success or failure in regards to different issues in education. The participatory countries vary widely enough that there can be a uniquely global understanding taking into account different cultural trends in the education and technological world. The ‘well being’ status of a country in this case is mostly focused on education and the ability of education to foster and promote innovation through a variety of essential skills; technical, thinking, behaviour and social skills. The reports are detailed enough that they paint a comprehensive picture of the issue at hand. Subject reports vary from math, to art, as well a encompassing a variety of ages and educational levels. All of these reports focus on the idea of innovation and the fostering of innovation. I think that these types of reports can be increasingly beneficial to technologies specialists and venturers due to the fact that both of these realms are interested in the development and fostering of new learning technologies. Technology and technological developments only become useful once they are used by a consumer, otherwise they are only a bundle of potential benefits. These reports are something that I would consult in my own career as a means of understanding what is happening on a global level for post-secondary innovation in teaching, thinking, and emerging technology trends. The only way to continue to stay and become relevant and current is to explore what is working in other countries and jurisdictions. I see these reports as helping me in my own success because these types of reports will allow me to think more critically regarding my own teaching and the technologies that I use and advocate for when designing classes and allocating resources.

This OECD website gathers together a wide variety of resources that could be useful to a number of different consumers. Of the reports that we had to choose from, it is decidedly the least approachable, and so I decided to analyse it more deeply to discover its value, if any. The OECD provides hyperlinked research for a number of different projects such as innovation strategies, measuring and predicting innovation, and the results of governmental investment policies in a variety of educational and political contexts. If research drives development, then the results that OECD arranges on their site will be of great value to educational entrepreneurs, particularly those wishing to sell their product to result-driven administrations. However, it seems more directed toward governments looking for research-based data to help guide their investment in various sectors. A common thread throughout their reports is that innovation is the driving force of developments and it is government’s role to foster that innovation. The degree to which this resource is useful depends on how the information is used. If a particular government is swayed by the findings of the various reports, than an educational entrepreneur may do well to develop products or services in the areas to be invested in. In general, however, the information provided focuses more on the efficacy of investing in innovation rather than any specific areas one could expect to see said innovation. Instances of real-life examples were limited amongst the research of an otherwise high academic standard. In general, I see this resource as more useful in the justification of investment in research and development rather than directing any specific development or product. I may seek out the results produced by this organization in the future because of the international nature of their results. Their work has produced data from countries with a variety of educational contexts and opportunities and they work in collaboration with other international organizations such as PISA.

This article or website was truly a difficult read. What I found fascinating, was that right after the website appeared, it gave prime real estate on the page to the words "bookmark this page". Not sure what the reasoning behind this was? However, as I started to look at the website, it became confusing and not very tempting to read or to click any of the links. In fact, there was nothing appealing about it. Even though it had 2 visuals, they were very lackluster and had no idea what they were referring to. I am not about to go into a full critique on the layout of the website. It was frustrating to follow the sequencing of the documents. Once you located a document or report you were interested in, a synopsis or executive summary was given, and then you could either see the document in pdf or word format, or you had to order it online. This website is very top heavy for policies and wants to give reasons why or why not educational systems provide a positive framework for creating innovating skills and practices within their 4 walls. I managed to become interested in one of the reports and tried to do a find for the words "high stakes" since I wanted clarification of what that meant, and could not perform a search on the 62 page document. Much of the document discussed the need for policy makers to be on board with the school system as well as the teachers. This specific report concludes that these high risk assessments actually undermine innovation and when new programs appear, it may take up to 5 years to show positive results. Luckily, I decided to stay and read the document to find out more information. Now would I recommend it? No. I would not recommend it. In order to recommend it, the website would have to become more user friendly, since it does discuss innovation at great length.

This site is lacking a clear navigation system and provides only minimal information on its main pages. As an organization that promotes innovation, I assumed that the site features would be more consistent from page-to-page, more aesthetically appealing and more user-friendly. I value the time I have for pro-d and research and do not want to be hindered by a confusing site. I also do not want to be denied access to publications. While several of the smaller reports and literature reviews are available to read online, it seems that most of the larger OECD publications need to be accessed through the OECD iLibrary subscription or purchased through the OECD Bookstore. I find it ironic that, while one of the key goals of the CERI is to “promote international exchange of knowledge and experience”, it does not make all of its publications openly accessible. It’s difficult for me to analyze the quality of the organization's research and the validity of their education strategies when I am unable to access much of the information. On a more positive note, I found the information on the OECD Skills Strategy page to be quite informative. As a high school teacher, I want to ensure that my students leave high school with the skills necessary to succeed in post-secondary and/or the workforce. The OECD Skills Outlook 2015 identifies the trends and policies in improving young people’s education, skills and integration into the labor market. I also appreciate the case studies on the different international programs that exist for helping students stay in school. Sources OECD. (2015). OECD Skills – Home . Retrieved from http://skills.oecd.org/ OECD. (2015). OECD Skills – Working with youth. Retrieved from http://skills.oecd.org/developskills/documents/workingwithyouth.html OECD. (2014). Innovation strategy for education and training. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/IS%20Project_Conference%20Brochure_FINAL.pdf

Assuming I've found the right site, I found this document to be relatively void of any useful information for teachers or students. Instead, it uses a lot of buzzwords such as "innovation" (61 times in a 4-page brochure), "skills" (27 times) and "educational ecosystems", so it may be useful for politicians who prefer such hype to any substance. There are plenty of questions like "How to best integrate technology into classroom teaching?", but no answers. There are vacuous, circular assertions like "Innovation also implies that societies, education and training systems must empower people to innovate and quickly respond to new skills needs generated by innovations" (OECD, p. 1). There are photographs and references to recent OECD publications (Measuring Innovation in Education, Critical Maths for Innovative Societies, Art for Art's Sake?, and 7 others) that may provide these answers to these questions, but there is no information on how to get these documents. If the information in these documents were searchable and accessible on the Internet rather than buried in pdfs or paper publications that one would need to order by mail, it might serve more of a purpose. The link at the bottom of this brochure is broken (http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/innovation). NB: I couldn't find a date anywhere, so the 2014 below is conjecture, based upon a 2014 publication being listed as "recent". Source: OECD. (2014). Innovation Strategy for Education and Training. Retrieved from: http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/IS%20Project_Conference%20Brochure_FINAL.pdf

The Organizations for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Innovation Strategies for Education & Training provides a plethora of information pertaining to innovation related to education. One of the ultimate goals of this organization is to help improve social and economic well-being for individuals around the world. It brings together policy makers from governments to share experience and seek solutions, to ultimately work together to reap the gains of innovation and understand how it impacts education and training policies. Supporting this mission are reports, such as Review of the Italian Strategy for Digital Schools and Measuring Innovation in Education, in addition to back projects, such as Innovative Learning Environments to analyze how young people learn and what allows them to learn better. This source might not cater much the individual teacher, since it puts heavy emphasis on government policy makers, and this is pretty far removed from the individual teacher in their own classroom. Furthermore, the information provided might not be specific enough, or of great relevance, for individual teachers, schools or even school districts. However, in the sense of gaining an understanding of global trends and issues this source is incredibly useful for large business and industries that provide training, as well as policy makers and government, such as education ministries. The former would also find value in the future forecasts and setting of international standards by this organization. This source could be incredibly useful for venture capitalists in the realm of E-learning, as it provides a variety of current global information related to innovation and what it implies for education.

The philosophy of OECD-CERI is a valuable and useful approach that can be utilized by educators. The report focuses on “how young people learn and under which conditions and dynamics they might learn better” (CERI-ILE, 2012). There appears to be many similarities between the notions of OECD-CERI and current educational practices. I am an educator currently working in a district that promotes inquiry-based learning. Inquiry-based learning focuses on the student, where students develop questions on a broad topic, perform investigations (micro level) and then share their findings (meso level). Topics can be curriculum-based or chosen by students. Many teachers (in the district that I work in) allow students to explore a topic they are passionate about. Teachers guide their students through their investigation, providing them with the skills to obtain and organize their data. The designated time for this activity is known as Genius Hour (Genius Hour, 2014). Like the ILE project, the goal of Genius Hour is to foster an innovative learning environment. The notions of OECD-CERI and inquiry-based learning both emphasize innovation and the development of “subject-based skills” and “skills in thinking and creativity” (OECD-CERI). The ILE research, particularly the seven principles of a learning environment, helps support educators when utilizing such practices in their classrooms. I would expect to seek out future versions of this report to support inquiry-based activities in my classroom. I would definitely recommend this report to reluctant educators or administration that may not fully appreciate or support innovative learning environments in the classroom. REFERENCES CERI-ILE (2012). The ILE Project. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/The%20ILE%20project.pdf Genius Hour (2014). What is Genius Hour? Retrieved from http://www.geniushour.com/what-is-genius-hour/ OECD-CERI. Skills and Education for Innovation. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/skillsandeducationforinnovation.htm

As someone with a background as an educator, I am drawn to the approach taken by OECD-CERI (OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation) to making sense of the educational innovation landscape. Instead of focusing on emerging technologies and how they may be leveraged to generate educational innovations, the OECD-CERI focuses on innovative learning environments (ILE's) and the technologies that support them. In CERI-ILE (2012) the OECD-ILE project stipulates that: "The distinctive contribution of the ILE project is to analyse, with numerous international examples, innovative ways of organising learning at the micro level (learning environment) and how this connects to the meso level (networks and communities of practice) and strategies to implement learning change at the macro, system level." To my mind, it is natural to start with a problem, then consider possible solutions, and move towards identifying the means of implementing solutions. Although it is not explicitly stated in this way, this seems to me to be the approach taken by the OECD with respect to technological innovation.The CERI approach emphasizes that the innovation is embodied in a formulated solution, and the technology is a tool for implementing this solution. In the search for educational innovations, if you start with a technology and then go looking for educational applications thereof, it is like taking a hammer and then looking for a nail to strike. When you have a task to perform, you look for the right tools to use - not the other way around. Usually, you start with a need - as in "I need to drive this nail into this board" - and then go looking for a hammer, or you may invest in a nail gun if you are going to be driving several nails. Or you may dispense with the nail and choose another means of fixing the board in place. The technology is a means to achieving a previously identified outcome. I am also drawn to the fact that CERI looks at all tiers of the educational environment, from the micro level of the learning environment through the meso level of communities of practice before seeking to formulate strategies at the macro level. This can potentially give venturers a good perspective on how to market their product. It may be that solutions are best targeted at students/teachers in the actual learning environment, or it may be better to target decision makers at the macro level. REFERENCES CERI-ILE (2012), The ILE Project. http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/The%20ILE%20project.pdf  last visited: 20/05/2014