March 2010 Guest post from Jeanne Wellings, a Research Specialist in the Florida school system

Innovation Unique to Education

Keynote speaker, Larry Keeley from Doblin, Inc., described the essential elements of transformative commercial innovations and explained how those elements are needed to revolutionize education. In a slideshow presentation, Keeley noted that innovation in education is currently different than other industries. He said educational innovations happen more slowly and in isolation; educators are slow to adopt new, best practices; few districts choose to be early adopters; and “adoptions of proven advances are erratic and political.” Doblin shared  encouraging educational innovations , including greater openness (Curriki and Whyville), new structures (WA Virtual Academies), business model revolutions, experience revolutions (Khan Academy, PASS model, Green Schools), and technology leverage. Doblin concluded that organizations like CoSN can become catalysts for educational innovation by challenging orthodoxies, fostering interoperability, being modular, using measures to identify and expand successful practices, and using incentives to spur adoption.