Innovation Project Update

My innovation project started a bit differently than my peers in the ADL program at Lamar. I started at Lamar in the summer of 2021 in the Master of Educational in Educational Technology Leadership. This program consisted of 6 courses in leadership (that would allow me to take the certification exam to be a principal) and then four courses from the ADL program. The Developing Effective Professional Learning course was the first one I took from the ADL program in March, 2022. I realized quickly that I liked how the ADL program was formatted and decided to switch programs to the ADL program. Due to the fact that I started with the Professional Learning course instead of the Disruptive Innovation in Tech (5305) course, my learning changed more.

With my first course (while still in the EdTech Leadership program), I started with a two part plan. First, I wanted to create a badging program that would allow teachers to have choice in what tech tools they wanted to learn about and add that knowledge to their "tech toolbox". The other part was for teachers to have a Teacher Tech Goal which was a required program that they would have to participate in, but they could choose their goals. More information about the professional learning goals for both of these can be found on my Professional Learning Planning page.

Once I decided to change my masters program to ADL in place of EdTech Leadership, I started "over" with the 5305 course. This course was very helpful in understanding the purpose of an innovation plan in more detail than I got when I started with the professional learning course instead. I was able to narrow down my focus to fusing learning with technology instead of it being broad and covering the two topics from my professional learning course. It was in the 5305 course that I shifted and created the innovation plan that I would use for the remainder of the program.

My original implementation outline indicated a two and a half year implementation timeline. Due to the fact that I took only one course at a time towards my ADL degree, I am just now at the point where I feel like I can fully start that implementation timeline. This coming semester (fall, 2024), I will start Phase 1 and meet with a group of teachers that volunteer to be part of the pilot. I have decided that instead of sticking with just high school teachers like I originally planned, I will open it to 2-3 teachers on each campus so that I can obtain feedback from all levels in our district. I will then move into Phase 2 in the spring, 2025, semester. Another change that I will make to my original plan is that I will not be making the program mandatory. I prefer to have teachers want to learn about the material instead of being forced to do so. However, I do believe that as the program is utilized with teachers in the district that others will see its value and participate voluntarily. Finally, I will have each phase of the program last a semester instead of an entire school year. Teachers can become a part of the program as many times as they'd like.

Progressing through the rest of the program I had some classes that I found more valuable than others. I enjoyed learning more about how I learn and my "why" behind what I do. I created a Learning Manifesto that looked back at how I got to where I am and created a Learning Philosophy that looks into what I believe and how I am as a learner. I did struggle though with our learning about Growth Mindset. While creating my Growth Mindset Plan was beneficial, it did not seem to be as helpful to me as my other courses and topics.

After learning about myself, we learned about how to lead change within our organization. Change is hard for everyone and each person is unique in how they face change. I liked being able to put the "Why" (along with the "How" and "What") behind my innovation plan. I think I really enjoyed this part because whenever I conduct training for our staff I start with the "Why". We ask our teachers to do so much so helping them understand the purpose to something helps them buy-in. Also within this leading change course, we created our influencer strategy and our 4DX model for our innovation plans. Both models had helpful factors for my innovation plan. The influencer strategy focused a lot on the personal motivations and the motivations from external factors. Motivation is critical in implementing something new especially if you need buy-in from the participants. The 4DX process focused more on how it would get done and the mechanics of it. However, they both played hand-in-hand with each other. I obtained my WIG from the results I wanted to achieve from my Influencer Strategy. I also merged other factors of my 4DX process to things from my influencer strategy. I think the more you can have processes mesh when trying something new, the easier it will be to be successful. 

One of my favorite courses came towards the end of my program when we learned about instructional design to create our course. Having an entire course to plan and create our first course was very beneficial. I chose to build a course for Google 101 for new staff to our district. While this did not tie directly into my innovation plan, the topic was chosen because it is greatly needed for new staff that do not understand the basics of Google Apps since we are a Google School. I learned quite a bit in that course and those lessons can be found in my reflection post for that course.

In reviewing the pages on my ePortfolio, I wondered if I should make some changes to the pages I created in my first course on professional learning. I decided that while the professional learning that I created in my first course was not completely aligned with my current innovation plan that I did not want to alter that work. I like the work that came from that course and I plan to use it, with some tweaks, as my current innovation plan progresses.

Almost everything we learned in our courses was beneficial in building my innovation plan. Even if it was something that I did not particularly want to learn about (like growth mindset and publications), I found the use in them. I found that my biggest struggle honestly was having a group of my peers to work with throughout the process. Mainly this was an issue because I only took one class at a time while others took 2 so my class members changed often. However, I am still in touch with my first group members and they continued to help me along the way even when they surpassed me in the program. In addition, I found that my motivation to do my best was lacking more often than I would have liked. I enjoyed what I learned but at times I couldn't find the motivation to do my best.

Going forward, I plan to promote my innovation plan to the teachers in my district to get interest in a pilot program. I will do this through my tech newsletter I send out each month as well as reaching out individually to some teachers that I know will be helpful. I am grateful that I will not have to get approval from my supervisors as they have grown to give me great flexibility in how I train and support our staff. However, having the research from the courses in this program will help if I ever need to utilize it. Once I have a group of teachers ready to start the pilot, we will start after Christmas break. They will be my first cohort and will help me to continue to develop the program to best suit our teachers.

Looking back at the creation of my innovation plan, I don't know if I'd do anything differently. Each mistake I made helped me learn and taught me a lesson I didn't know before. I learned that I should narrow down my focus instead of being so broad. I learned what not to do in building a course and what to watch out for. The only thing I may do differently is focus more and try harder. Even with my lack of effort at times, I have the resources and knowledge now to build better professional learning than I ever have before.

Going forward, I will be using the resources and steps from this program when creating future innovation plans. With the role I have in my district, I will be able to continue to create new plans and what I have learned will help make those better than they ever would have been before.