Innovation from necessity: digital technologies, teacher development and reciprocity with organisational innovation
Abstract
This paper outlines how digital technologies support innovation in teaching and learning the English language across Palestinian Higher Education Institutes. A European project collaborated to build staff capacity in knowledge and skills, shown here through the redesign of curricula, pedagogical training, the design and implementation of interactive textbooks, the creation of language labs, helping to develop expertise in creating and utilising Open Educational Resources (OER) and significantly, the development of individual agency as a form of OER. In this paper, we draw on three years of data to present a model for teacher innovation showing how digital innovation is firstly personal at a practitioner level and shaped by need, before becoming driven by collaboration at an organisational level with like-minded colleagues. Shared practice at this level can lead to community discourse through practitioner networks, which in turn can lead to dialogue initiating instances of organisational change. This resonates with literature which shows innovation has three outcomes: originality (practitioner-based agency); scale (going beyond the site of creation) and value (how this produces benefits for others). We perceive that the resulting capacity-building extends beyond the redesign of curricula mentioned to professional enrichment, collegiality through cascading innovation to other areas, and enhanced practitioner agency.Citation
Scott, H. and Smith, M. (2024) Innovation from necessity: digital technologies, teacher development and reciprocity with organisational innovation. Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Learning, 39(2), pp. 170-187.Publisher
Taylor & FrancisJournal
Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance LearningAdditional Links
https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2024.2307627Type
Journal articleLanguage
enDescription
© 2024 The Authors. Published by Taylor & Francis. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2024.2307627ISSN
0268-0513EISSN
1469-9958Sponsors
The work was supported by the Erasmus+ [2018-3489/001-001].ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1080/02680513.2024.2307627
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/