Innovation in Uncertain Times
Context
This project with the University of Toronto’s Innovation Hub centres the voices of K-12 and post-secondary educators to better understand their needs and imagine new ways of breaking down silos. The work is captured in the Innovation Hub’s report, “Building Better Learning Communities” (2020), which documents our collaborative process and the voices of educators across the GTA.
This project invited us to imagine what might be possible if the usual silos in education loosened, so that, for example, a high school teacher and a university professor could meaningfully learn from one another’s approaches. It highlighted the possibility of a more connected learning ecosystem, one where educators feel supported as they innovate, experiment, and grow.
What we did not know was that this work was being completed on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic; a moment that would soon make innovation feel both at our finger tips and impossible. Learning communities everywhere were pushed to rethink what connection, collaboration, and growth could look like under extraordinary constraints. The project was not designed for that moment, but it outlasted it, offering ideas and insights that helped educators stay connected when community mattered most. While it did not have the impact we had originally envisioned because of the disruptions brought on by COVID, we continue to find deep value in its insights and have carried several of them forward in meaningful ways, as you can see below.
“Bringing the Innovation Hub students together with I-Think was a truly special partnership. Our students, from across disciplines at the University of Toronto learned from I-Think’s depth of thinking. Integrative thinking truly helped them to imagine the possibilities for bringing educators together and innovative ways to address barriers and silos for educators. The students had a wonderful time and still talk about this project as one where they learned skills that they are now using in their careers.”
- Julia Allworth, Innovation Hub Manager
Taking the Recommendations Forward
1. An Annual Symposium to Our Annual Celebration of Thinking
The Design Thinking team at the Innovation Hub recommended creating a gathering to share ideas and build community. We reimagined this as our Celebration of Thinking event, where last year we hosted a lunch-in with funders and policymakers to explore the future of education.
2. An Information Hub to Resource Library and Podcast
They proposed a central place to spark creativity. Each of our Challenge Kits now includes a resource library that fuels curiosity and deepens learning, and we are creating a podcast telling the story of our work inside a Toronto high school.
3. An Online Community to Community Cares
Educators asked for spaces to stay connected. During the pandemic, we launched Community Cares, virtual gatherings where educators could come together to reflect, support one another, and stay grounded through uncertainty.
This is how we carried the insights of the Innovation Hub’s recommendations forward. Ideas go through iterations between their conception and implementation. What’s important is that they hold the essence of the thinking and insights that underpinned the recommendations rooted in the data and research.
