Last class in Computers in the classroom

Today we went to a lecture to hear Nick Donofrio talk about innovation. He believes that what leads to innovation are when things are, "open, collaborative, global and multidisciplinary." There are many things that we as teachers can do in order to bring innovation into the classroom. We need to be open to ideas of our co-workers as well as students. We need to be open to the different methods and techniques that can be used to engage students more in the classroom, rather than just shutting them out, without giving them a chance. I need to be more open to the wide and brilliant range of technology that is continuously being introduced into the classroom. If I do not give it a chance just because I do not like it or understand it, that it restricting a student from utilizing something that can help them learn better or help them become interested in something.
While we are being open with ideas, opinions and techniques, as a class and school we need to collaborate on these ideas and come up with a mutual agreement on what would be best suited for ourselves and students. I can also have my students collaborate in the classroom by assigning group projects which make them work as a team and express and accept opinions and ideas; then use these to come up with a group decision.
We can innovate in the classroom by becoming global as well. By using skype or other video web casting methods, I can have the students talk to mathematicians from around the world about topics that we are discussing, giving them a wide variety of methods and opinions about the different types of math they are learning about.
Lastly, innovation will stem from multidisciplinary acts in the classroom. I can incorporate this into the classroom by allowing students to learn from a wide range, rather than just a chalkboard and text book. What I learned and loved most in computers in the classroom was smart notebook. It allowed you to be very creative with your lesson, incorporating media, the Internet, activities and much more. I also really liked the idea of voice thread and video story. With these different tactics to learning, students will innovate and never want to stop!