Why "innovate and educate"? For the educator of 2015, innovation goes hand in hand with education. Perhaps, the title of this blog should be innovate, and then educate because one flows from the other? Honestly, naming this blog was my first obstacle to starting one. I went through the following list: "stir up education", "challenge thinking", "revamp teaching and learning", "remake and educate", "jolt and evolve"...oy vay! Education matters a great deal to me and how to encapsulate in a few words all that I want to express and what I'd love to see improve in my field was stumping me. So there it is...innovate and educate. I'll go with it...until I find something better.
This speaking exchange video powerfully demonstrates the use of technology to bring language students and their "tutors" together and the learning, the connections and the relationships that they forge are nothing short of remarkable. I love how meaningful the experience is to these second language learners. They are putting their verbal language skills into practise and they are using technology to bust out of their classroom walls in Brazil and reach thousands of kilometers away to chat with seniors in the U.S. Chokes me up everytime.
The image of the firing neurons above is also a deliberate choice. What happens in the brain when a student learns another language? I've learned that the brain physically changes after a student takes up another language. I can only imagine how the neurons are fusing when the brain is also registering the positive emotions that come from making connections with other people--pleasurable learning experiences married with language learning. That's the bulls-eye, the challenge, the goal.