Over the recent years there has been a surge of research and writings on the concept of collaborative groups and innovation. Whenever I read about them, the possible parallels within education always jumped out at me. As a teacher, it is my duty to work toward facilitating individual and group growth within the microcosm of the classroom.
Why not model a learning community after an environment geared towards collaborative innovation?
I have recently been reading a lot of nonfiction works that revolve around the topic of innovation, collaboration, and design. One particularly gripping work by the author Steven Johnson. A few years ago I took a class titled Biology: Technology of the Future. The class used Steven Johnson's book Where Good Ideas Come From as its foundational text. The concepts in the book resonated with me on not only a personal level, but on a professional one.
The printing press, the pencil, the flush toilet, the battery—these are all great ideas. But where do they come from? What kind of environment breeds them? What sparks the flash of brilliance? How do we generate the breakthrough technologies that push forward our lives, our society, our culture? Steven Johnson’s answers are revelatory as he identifies the seven key patterns behind genuine innovation, and traces them across time and disciplines. From Darwin and Freud to the halls of Google and Apple, Johnson investigates the innovation hubs throughout modern time and pulls out applicable approaches and commonalities that seem to appear at moments of originality. Where Good Ideas Come From gives us both an important new understanding of the history of innovation and a set of useful strategies for cultivating our own creative breakthroughs.
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