Since the March ITLL session with George Couros, I’ve tried to reflect on my own practices and ask myself how I could make them more “innovative”. I teach Digital Media Production, so I feel like most of the stuff we do in the classroom is already fairly innovative (aligning projects with “real-life” industry practices). However, two extra-curricular areas that I am involved in could definitely benefit from an innovative re-think: our school newsletter and yearbook. We are still producing traditional print versions of these, and (those of us involved) complain often about how much work it is vs. how much people care about them. During our innovation session, some ideas started percolating… what about doing video versions of both? We already have all the video equipment, so no further cost is involved. And let’s face it, if we’re going to speak the language of this generation, a short, attention-grabbing video is probably going to garner much more viewership than traditional print. For the newsletter, instead of all the typical “news” items (which could just go up on our website, anyway), what if we did a celebration of student accomplishments? I think that would be much more interesting. Maybe we could focus on a different subject each month. I haven’t worked out all the details yet, but this is definitely an idea that I will explore further in the coming months.

Marcus Fowler

Cluster 2010

R.B. Russell Vocational High School

Since the March ITLL session with George Couros, I’ve tried to reflect on my own practices and ask myself how I could make them more “innovative”. I teach Digital Media Production, so I feel like most of the stuff we do in the classroom is already fairly innovative (aligning projects with “real-life” industry practices). However, two extra-curricular areas that I am involved in could definitely benefit from an innovative re-think: our school newsletter and yearbook. We are still producing traditional print versions of these, and (those of us involved) complain often about how much work it is vs. how much people care about them. During our innovation session, some ideas started percolating… what about doing video versions of both? We already have all the video equipment, so no further cost is involved. And let’s face it, if we’re going to speak the language of this generation, a short, attention-grabbing video is probably going to garner much more viewership than traditional print. For the newsletter, instead of all the typical “news” items (which could just go up on our website, anyway), what if we did a celebration of student accomplishments? I think that would be much more interesting. Maybe we could focus on a different subject each month. I haven’t worked out all the details yet, but this is definitely an idea that I will explore further in the coming months.