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In his keynote presentation, Tony Vincent demonstrates how inventive thinking and technology can foster innovation inside and outside of classrooms. Tony shares many examples of how technology can empower teachers and students to do things in new and better ways, including flip-flopping traditional instruction and implementing Genius Hour.

The Status Quo is the current state of affairs. It’s how things are done. Often we hear that “we’ve always done it this way.” Other times we’re waiting for a better way to come along. To question the status quo, we ask “what if” and “why not.”

Dr. Hal Gregersen and his colleagues have surveyed 3,500 executives and creative individuals and closely tracked the habits of 25 exceptional entrepreneurs, all with the aim of figuring out the qualities that set the great innovators of the world apart from everyone else. Read about their findings.

Compliance is doing as you’re told. It’s all about following instructions, not questioning the rules or developing alternatives. Improving requires changes to the status quo!

Below are the examples Tony shared about leaving the status quo behind and doing things in different and better ways.

Examples From The Digital World

  1. My Scrip Calculator app
  2. PhotoMath app
  3. Dropbox and for online storage instead of a flash drive
  4. Copy is a "copy" of Dropbox where you start with 15GB of storage
  5. Want to print QR code stickers? Here's the printer Tony uses.
  6. Google's Hiring Process
  7. Google's Lazlo Bock's interview about getting a job at Google
  8. Set Google Advanced Search as a computer’s home page
  9. Filter your Google search by using the minus symbol
  10. Search Diigo for classroom resources booked marked by other teachers
  11. Search Slideshare
  12. Search Pinterest 
  13. Search Twitter

Examples from Education

  1. Great teaching and great leadership is not available on the App Store. Print your own stickers.
  2. Instead of cover, think uncover or discover
  3. “The greatest obstacle to learning is coverage.” -Howard Gardner
  4. Sketchnoting (Notability it Tony's favorite app for sketchnoting.)
  5. Students take their notes directly into a flashcard site or app like Quizlet.
  6. Stick Around for iPad lets teachers and students make their own games.
  7. Plickers are paper clickers!
  8. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) 
  9. Flip the classroom by doing lecture at home and work at school
  10. Students make their own math instructional videos at Mathtrain.tv.
  11. Explain Everything is an app for easily recording instructional videos
  12. Students can now have an audience outside of the classroom for what they create and do.
  13. Chromebook charging station for cheap
  14. "Simplicity if the ultimate sophistication." - Leonardo da Vinci
  15. Use a font larger than 96 in your slides.
  16. Give presentations a twist by using the Ignite format: 20 slides times to advance every 15 seconds.
  17. Genius Hour video (made with VideoScribe) and website and infographic.

Examples from TonY'S Classroom

  1. Publish reviews on Amazon.
  2. Be creative with your class website name (Planet 5th vs. Mr. Vincent's 5th Grade).
  3. Assign a roving reporter to photography and write about class each day.
  4. Create Choose Your Own Adventure/branching stories using Inklewriter. Read Ebony's Crazy Hairdo.
  5. Number students in reverse alphabetical order. Read research about people having a last name at the end of the alphabet.
  6. Give spelling tests on Tuesdays to give the weekend to study.
  7. Do science experiments at the start of a unit.

Five skills seen in innovative CEOs include:

  1. questioning
  2. observing
  3. experimenting
  4. networking
  5. associating

Question, Challenge, and Change the Status Quo!

 
 

KEEP IN TOUCH WITH TONY

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