Ending the "we have always done it this way " mantra

Open-mindedness is critical in an innovation fueled educational environment.  The students and teachers must be willing to try new things -- to teach and learn in untraditional ways.  Students must not be afraid to tackle unstructured assignments, and take an active role in their learning.  Teachers must be willing to move away from a compliance educational culture and think outside of the box to create learning opportunities for their students.

School communities must be supportive of the risk takers, because they will fail; but that is all part of the learning process.  Both students and teachers need to feel supported, so that they are empowered to try new things.  As Katie Martin say in her book "Learner Centered Innovation":

"... if we don't empower teachers and create school cultures where people feel valued and free to take risks, we will miss out on our greatest opportunity to change how students learn"

Schools need to take a hard look at the world around them.  Things have changed exponentially and we can no longer all our practices to be decided by the mantra:

"This is the way we have always done it"

#LCINNOVATION, IMMOOC