Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Boom.. Snap.. Clap.. Innovate!


Day 1 of #TOR16 #GoogleEI Innovator Academy
Today we focussed on our project thru various lenses with the foundation that it:
-should drive change in education
-should be replicable and or accessible
-should fall under one of Google’s Pillars of Innovation (check out Sylvia Duckworth #sketchnote below)

Several guests lead us through Sprints with an emphasis on the bigger picture, focus on the user and life/work balance. Liz Anderson, Mark Wagner, Wendy Gorton, Donnie Piercey and Jeffrey Humphries each leading the way to moonshot thinking!

Each team was introduced: The 7 Wanderers was us and we launched into our group cheer (Boom.. Snap.. Clap..) and handshake (baseball hand signals).
Les McBeth guided us through the Design Thinking model to tease out ideas, considerations and ideation. Rafranz Davis immersed us in discussion of Your Signature Story emphasizing how our life experiences change us and how do we use that to drive positive change. Sandra Chow reminds us that while working on your project…. Zoom In & Zoom Out. Figure out how to wrap our head around the big picture. Sylvia Duckworth modelled #sketchnoting benefits to capture the message using images via drawing on devices. Becky Evans shared the importance of optimism & reenforcing a positive work / school culture.
I thank all the educators from the #TOR16 cohort who shared a Spark today. I only wished there was time to visit each of the sessions. I know I had a great time sharing the fun I am having with students when creating paper circuits.
The sharing, feedback, making various iterations to our project ideas to fine tune, focus on the user and the big picture was challenging! Connecting with educators who had similar projects while meeting with others who offered a fresh perspective/questions was definitely rewarding... They really pushed the kind of thinking that is needed when considering viewpoints, identifying a problem & ways to solve it.
You can only imaging how awesome this day was like in person and the anticipation of waiting for what the next day would bring!



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