Reflections on Innovation Topics

Exploiting Digital Benefits in Education

2011-11-29T01:53:00.000-08:00

I am currently co-authoring an article about how new technology might be integrated within existing learning practices in an educational setting.

Having an interest in disruptive innovation and sociological practice-theoretical aspects I like to find illustrative examples of how new technologies might change the way we learn and potentially create new routines of learning and teaching. Even though much has been written about ICT competence (or the lack of it) amongst teachers and students - I believe that evaluating change within practices and routines might be a fruitful approach in order to comprehend what creates value towards various user groups. So, instead of assessing ICT competence (or technology readiness indexes) as a subjective measurement I am more interested in how existing doings/actions/routines change when new technologies are introduced.

The integration of meaning, know-how and technology might be a challenging task when considering new technologies in an educational setting typically characterized by long-held traditions. What we do know is that many students are enthusiastic about new technologies and services (think about smart phones, iPad, Facebook etc.) but many of these digital features are not integrated as part of their routines at school in a manner which might facilitate more efficient and interactive learning. So, the challenge is to be able to exploit benefits that might potentially derive from new technologies (i.e. interactivity), utilize student motivation towards new gadgets and encourage teachers to integrate these new tools as part of their teaching programme. Ofcourse, we must wait for those innovative solutions which could actually introduce interactivity, such as interactive textbooks (more than e-books), self-test exercises with digital feedback, social interactivity amongst students etc.) which the new generation of students are waiting for....

The video below (in Norwegian) illustrates how new technology may bring forward interactivity that only digital can do. It shows how visualization and simulation may enhance the way we learn about complex concepts and theories in new ways.

Senter for IKT i utdanningen - Fremtiden starter nå from Howie Arnstad on Vimeo.

A Tribute to One of The Greatest Innovators of Our Time

2011-10-14T04:33:00.001-07:00

A Practitioner's Guide to User-driven Innovation in Health Care

2011-04-15T00:49:00.000-07:00

InnoMed, in collaboration with the Health Directorate, Health Mid-Norway and SINTEF have developed a guide to needs-driven innovation. The partners have collaborated on the development of knowledge creation - and sharing related to needs-driven innovation in the health sector. Experiences from pilot projects are now summarized in a brief guide to benefit innovation practitioners.

The manual is an aid and tool for anyone working with innovation in health care, and refers to various methods that provides the reader with important insights in how to conduct a needs-driven innovation process. Preferred methods are described step by step, potentially making the road towards a user-driven development of both products and services less complicated.

The guide is written in Norwegian. Download here

7 Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs

2011-01-04T05:57:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! 2011 has finally arrived, and I'm looking forward to new innovative gadgets that I can put my hands on! I have to admit, that personally, 2010 was a year that I willingly bought several Apple products without giving them second thoughts. Their eye-candy design, intuitive user interface and simplicity are many of the obvious selling points on the radar.

Of course, many have wondered, how is Apple able to introduce these highly desirable products? I believe the answer is in many ways quite complex (i.e. design, simplicity, business model innovation, innovation culture and uncovering hidden user needs). Nevertheless, below is a presentation of 7 innovation secrets from Steve Jobs - deriving from his personal entrepreneurial success. The principles are outlined by Carmine Gallo in his new book, The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs (McGraw-Hill (MHP), October 2010).

The 7 Principles of Innovation according to this book are:
1. Do what You Love
2. Put a Dent in the Universe
3. Kick-Start Your Brain
4. Sell Dreams, Not Products
5. Say No to 1,000 Things
6. Create Insanely Great Experiences
7. Master the Message

7 Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs

Teaching Teaching and Understanding Understanding

2010-10-13T00:26:00.000-07:00

In my humble quest of practicing teaching I found a really inspiring video on YouTube recently. Although the video below exemplify stereotypical students in their learning situation - it reflects upon many of the challenges related to teaching and understanding from both a teacher and a student perspective. The video starts of by showing how an 'old school' way of approaching teaching is typically related to how you look at the students in terms of who they are (level 1). The next level contemplates on what teachers do and how they teach. Whereas the third level (and yes, this is the one we should focus on) addresses what students do in terms of learning outcomes. Summarized:

level1: what students are (blame students)

level2: what teachers do (blame teachers)
level3: what students do (learning outcomes)

So, if we focus more on learning outcomes we are focusing more on student actions and their own learning process. By considering how the students get the job done in learning the subject we understand that knowledge is constructed as a result of the learners activity. Furthermore, this emphasizes that humans often need patterns in the way they learn by associating new/unknown information with old/known information. Hence, we need to engage and activate students - and understand how they are activated. In order to understand how students might be activated; the following classification scheme is also mentioned in the video:

Solo1: pre-structural (no understanding)
Solo2: uni-structural (to identify, to do procedure)
Solo3: multi-structural (classify, combine)
Solo4: relational (relate, compare, analyze)
Solo5: extended abstract (generalize, hypothesize, theorize)

Whilst Solo 4 and 5 is regarded as deep understanding, solo 2 and 3 is barely considered as surface understanding in the learning process. So, in order to step up on a higher learning level it is imperative that we move away from thinking of long academic lectures that presumes student learning through simple transmission structures; and move towards facilitating student activation.

Constructive Alignment
But how do we match student activity to our intentions within teaching...? Professor John Biggs has introduced the concept of constructive alignment where teachers aspire to develop exams that are aligned with learning outcomes by measuring student ability to explain, relate, prove and apply concepts. We see that the focus is here shifted from typical 'old school' skills as memorization towards engagement and activation. The challenge is therefore to facilitate the use of higher cognitivism amongst the students. This reminds me of an article where the focus is on understanding value as a result of the user's activity: "From thinking about the purpose of firm activity as making something (goods or services) to a process of assisting customers in their own value-creation processes." Vargo & Lusch (2008).

I think the theory is inspiring and thought- provoking. It has made me think more about the importance of facilitating case exercises in class lectures as a critical component so that concepts can be applied and learned through student activity.

Ken Robinson argues that schools kill creativity

2010-09-20T23:57:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to watch Sir Ken Robinson live at a conference (Innotown) a couple of years ago. Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

Robinson is an author, speaker and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education and arts bodies. He was knighted in 2003 for services to education.

Highly recommended.

Report: New Methods for User-driven Innovation in the Health Care Sector

2010-09-14T11:46:00.001-07:00

Hmmm, just came over this interesting report about new methods for user driven innovation in the health care sector - published September 2009. I'm not sure of how 'new' these methods are today, but the report provides a nice overview of the field.

"The report consists of an overview of innovation theory, hereunder user driven innovation directions, an analysis of the health care sector, the need for innovation and the specificities which have to be taken into consideration in innovation processes and a presentation of state of the art examples from the Nordic region and the USA. The Norwegian pilot projects in the NICe program are related to InnoMed, an
organization established and owned by the Norwegian Directorate of Health. This
organization aims to improve health care services through development of new
solutions that cover unmet market needs. InnoMed is working to become a centre of
expertise for user driven innovation, and in order to achieve so they are cooperating
with SINTEF Health Research. Together with SINTEF, InnoMed will evaluate
methodologies for various phases in the innovation process during a five-year project.

Three InnoMed projects were used as case studies in the NICe program on user driven
innovation: impaired hearing, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and
dementia."

Download the report here

User-driven Service Innovation in Health Care

2010-09-05T13:06:00.000-07:00

The user-driven innovation approach has really gained a lot of attention in recent years. Many companies are starting to realize that innovation can arise not only from the research and development department but also from the interaction with partners, suppliers and end-users. Consequently, numerous firms in varying industries are now engaging users to play an active part in the development of new or improved products or services.

User-driven innovation is about mapping and understanding the user's existing and non-recognized needs, then use the knowledge as the basis for the development of new products, processes, organizational forms or service concepts. The user-driven innovation approach is seeking to gain greater focus around what the true needs are of target users and how can they best be met, or even exceeded, through the product or service being developed. Large enterprises in automotive and ICT, which are in the forefront of the global innovation arena, are characterized precisely by the fact that they are skilled in revealing unspoken user needs. These companies have an innovation process that often is much more demand driven than technology driven. Although manufacturing industries have many established methodologies we have to develop and pursue methods which are relevant also for service sectors in order to devise service concepts that satisfy customers unmet needs.

Transferred to the health sector means that we have to include government, hospitals, doctors, specialists and other professionals in health care, patients and their families. This diverse group of stakeholders is an important factor in the health sector with their own demands and various agendas regarding the implementation of innovation projects. Thus, methods for user-driven innovation in other industries, can not be adopted directly to the health sector. Testing, evaluation and adaptation of methods and tools for the development of new services are therefore sought after.

To harness this new wave of invention and creativity companies should put end user's needs in focus, which forms the basis for the development of ideas, conceptualization and final solutions. Also, the approach should address the user's context explicitly in order to have an impact. Finally, an integral concept is stronger, more accurate and is perceived as more meaningful to end users if all facets of this concept are developed based on insights and needs from the users' reality.

Report on User-driven Innovation in the Nordic Region

2010-08-28T10:12:00.000-07:00

Nordic Innovation Centre has recently published a report about user driven innovation projects in the Nordic region. This is a field that involves an even greater focus on the user as a source of innovation. The report maps the national initiatives and good examples from individual companies in each Nordic country, and the results are promising. From Norway, one of Tine's innovation processes is studied.

Download the report here

Creativity in Action(!)

2010-08-11T06:10:00.001-07:00

Funny how the outcome of a creative process can turn into something completely unimagined. Check out the hilarious video below that illustrates this point quite nicely:

Motivation and incentives related to creative work

2010-06-13T07:34:00.000-07:00

How do we become more motivated? Higher salary? Maybe to a certain extent. According to Dan Pink, there are three factors that lead to better performance and personal satisfaction: autonomy, mastery and purpose.

Check out the fantastic video below - called 'The surprising truth about what motivates us'. Now, that's what I call a creative presentation!

Exploring Service Models for Technology Induced Innovations in Elderly Care

2010-03-12T13:21:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't written for a while, so here comes an update after my visit to UC Berkeley.

In addition to writing mandatory assignments I have been developing the problem statement for my PhD project – with related hypotheses. For the time being, the problem statement concerns the lack of knowledge and conceptualization related to services in business model constructs. Much of the business model literature still applies the product logic where the user is considered as a passive receiver of value. Consequently, the inclusion of the user’s infrastructure in the value creation logic of business models is seemingly in need of rigorous development. I have therefore spent time on conceptualizing a model where the business model of the provider and user is integrated as part of a service system. By considering two business models, one is compelled to consider the infrastructure (skills, processes and network) of the user as a critical component of a service development endeavor.

In order to test out my hypotheses, technology induced service innovations in elderly care will be the empirical focus of attention. The emerging resource challenges related to the care of elderly as “baby boomers” head for retirement are enormous and indeed call for collaborative efforts. In order to provide sound innovations which might aid care workers and concurrently increase care quality a deep understanding of user needs is required.

A pilot project is now being organized to collect data in Østfold, Norway. The idea is to identify the most important problems in private homes where elderly need help. The focus is set on understanding problem parameters such as: importance, frequency and frustration related to different ‘jobs to be done’. By applying a framework where we are able to understand the infrastructure of the user we might be able to identify accompanying technologies and business models more precisely in the context of Norwegian elderly care.

Business Models Beyond Profit - Social Entrepreneurship Lecture

2009-11-09T07:10:00.001-08:00

Dr. Alexander Osterwalder is in many ways a Guru within Business model design. Check out this SlideShare Presentation about social entrepreneurship. Very impressive indeed:

Business Models Beyond Profit - Social Entrepreneurship Lecture

View more documents from Alexander Osterwalder.

Service Design - a short introduction

2009-10-13T23:43:00.000-07:00

Customer interaction and practical beauty are some of the terms applied to this new and exciting concept. Service design pioneer Birgit Mager at the Köln International School of Design, uses the following working definition:

Service design…
• Aims to create services that are useful, useable, desirable, efficient, and effective

• Is a human-centered approach that focuses on customer experience and the quality
of service encounter as the key value for success

• Is a holistic approach that considers in an integrated way strategic, system, process, and touch-point design decisions

• Is a systematic and iterative process that integrates user-oriented, team-based interdisciplinary approaches and methods in ever-learning cycles

Also check out the 'eye candy'- presentation below. I really have to learn to make such elegant presentations myself :) Uploaded by Yves Pigneur on Slideshare:

Service Design

View more documents from ypigneur.

Explaining the theory of disruptive innovation in an innovative manner...

2009-10-03T14:14:00.001-07:00

A new, special friend

2009-08-21T05:11:00.001-07:00

Nexi is a robot developed by a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She visited the Milano Senior Center in Melrose this week to allow her developers to conduct research on how she — the robot — interacts with seniors.

Jun Ki Lee, a researcher with the Personal Robots Group at MIT’s Media Lab in Cambridge, said Nexi is an MDS robot — Mobile, Dexterous and Social — meaning that she can move around on wheels (mobile) and pick up objects (dexterous). The “social” aspect comes from Nexi’s unique face, which is modeled after an actual human face, complete with eyes with eyelids, eyebrows and a mouth — all of which helped her land at number 17 on Time magazine’s list of the “Best Inventions of 2008.”

Truly amazing!

Business Model Innovation in the Public Sector

2009-08-17T05:02:00.001-07:00

Check out the slideshare below. It demonstrates how visualization of a business model can highlight essential improvement possibilities. It is interesting to reflect on how technological infrastructure changes can dramatically innovate a public sector business model.

Business Model Innovation (public sector dilemma)

View more documents from Harry Verwayen.

Robotic baby seal for elderly

2009-06-12T01:01:00.000-07:00

It is little, cute and cuddly, loves being petted and responds to touch and speech by moving and making sounds. It even has a beneficial effect on people with dementia. Paro is the name of the creature, which is neither dog, cat nor rabbit. Paro is a seal - a robotic seal from Japan!

This original pet is a stuffed animal robot, developed by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. Engineer Takanori Shibata said Paro prototypes are being tested in Japan and Sweden at nursing homes, and with autistic and handicapped children. "We know that pet therapy helps physically, psychologically and socially, and Paro does the same thing for people who are unable to care for a live pet," said Shibata. Paro may soon be tested in children's hospitals in the United States. It's expected to cost between $2,500 and $3,000.

What is Catalytical Innovation?

2009-06-04T02:06:00.000-07:00

Professor Clayton Christensen from Harvard Business School has increasingly been recognised as a guru in the field of innovation theory. His "The Innvoator's XYZ" books prove his concept of disrupive innovation in a very exciting and cheerful manner and make them an interesting read indeed.

The main focus for his disruptive innovation theories is often directed towards private sectors. However, Christensen has also adapted business based theories in the context of social change - coined "Catalytical Innovation". Interestingly, the principles of disruptive innovation may support organizations who aim at creating new solutions to social challenges. Christensen, Bauman and Heiner have identified several criteria for catalytical innovation:

The Five Qualities of Catalytic Innovators:

1) They create systemic social change through scaling and replication.
2) They meet a need that is either overserved (because the existing solution is more complex than many people require) or not served at all.
3) They offer products and services that are simpler and less costly than existing alternatives and may be perceived as having a lower level of performance, but users consider them to be good enough.
4) They generate resources, such as donations, grants, volunteer manpower, or intellectual capital, in ways that are initially unattractive to incumbent competitors.
5) They are often ignored, disparaged, or even encouraged by existing players for whom the business model is unprofitable or otherwise unattractive and who therefore avoid or retreat from the market segment.

Interesting stuff!

The Best Robots of 2008

2009-05-15T00:10:00.000-07:00

To fully understand the rapid development in robot technology it can be useful to view videos that demonstrate their abilities. The link below shows some extremely entertaining and fascinating robot demonstrations in several categories: Soccer, humanoid, self assembly, music, ornithopters, exoskeleton and rugged terrain.

Enjoy!
--> The Best Robots of 2008

The Need for Service Innovation in Home Care Services

2009-05-04T03:54:00.001-07:00

The need for service innovation will most likely be very apparent in home care services as the number of elderly will increase sharply over the next decades in many OECD countries. In Norway for instance, there will be twice as many people over 80 years by 2035. Moreover, the aging population will probably have increased need for health and care services, while access to labour most likely will decline. The way that care services are designed today, the need for assistance may eventually exceed the labour which is available. To address the challenges above – care technologies, such as smart house technology, body sensors, tracking technology and robot technology, could prove to be essential to provide a dignified care in the future.

In addition to the technological advances, new service models must be developed that can incorporate new and emerging technologies to provide more efficient home care services in the future. Customer interactions must be adjusted with appropriate adjustments in infrastructure of the value models. Consequently, this research aims to investigate the following research question:

How can new service models improve service provision in home care with the utilization of new and emerging technologies?