Scamper towards teaching innovation

In the business world innovation is often so simple that it is welcomed by the chorus (usually of derision)  "Well, I could have done that!" from frustrated innovators who didn't.

Teaching innovation is a much used and vaunted term in Higher Education and a previous blog post  has questioned whether today's innovations are not simply old ideas being given fresh paint.

The excellent MindTools website gives us another tool - this time for creativity - innovation if you will - the tool, another mnemonic, is SCAMPER - standing for:

• Substitute - Use customers instead of staff to process their own banking transactions
• Combine - Bundle complementary goods together - computers and software
• Adapt - Use maggots to heal scar tissue
• Modify - Make the Gramophone portable
• Put to another use - Put NASA's non-stick coating on frying pans
• Eliminate - Shop on-line and avoid the crush
• Reverse - Unbundle package holidays and get travellers to choose and book the separate elements of their holiday

So, how could University lecturers use SCAMPER?

• Substitute - Podcasts for (some) lectures
• Combine - Lectures and workshops to link application and discussion directly to knowledge acquisition
• Adapt - Lecture theatres to become flexible learning spaces
• Modify - Thinking about how students learn (and when and where...)
• Put to another use - Rework successful lectures as Distance Learning materials
• Eliminate - Exams and use assessment that actually measures learning
• Reverse - The trend towards TEF metrics for teaching and focus, instead, on effective learning.

Now that's innovation!