Activity Two — Shen Ying

Identify a model of change to help explain change within an organization you have experienced.

21^st Century Learner

The 21^st century learning skills:

Ø Inventive Thinking

i. Critical thinking: thinking and sound reasoning, students can adopt a cognitive process of analysis in problem solving

ii. Creativity: technical tools with creative ideas bring out innovative pedagogy.

iii. Accountability & Adaptability: students can change their attitudes and behaviors to catch up the current environment. Student will be given multiple tasks and goals with diverse methodology and resources to choose, which depend on individual character.

iv. Self-directed learning: student-center model will promote students managing their learning in a more independent way. Students can acquire learning resource due to their own experience, goal and achievement.

Ø Digital-Age Literacy:

i. Information & Media literacy: media mass information requires learners able to evaluate valuable resource across a range of literacy.

Ø Effective Communication:

i. Communication: students need to exchange ideas and share experience through technical tools in order to expand the possibility of question solving.

ii. Social responsibility: information technology applied in education gives students more opportunities to realize the public comments, and also requires students more responsible to society, environment and democratic ideas.

iii. Collaboration: students can work more collaborative and interactive. Based on innovative technology, students will be given a more cooperative teamwork without the consideration of distance.

Ø High Productivity:

i. Problem solving: in digital age, solution is powered by technology, fueled by information, and driven by knowledge.

Roger (1995) cited that innovation decision process suffered five distinct stages: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation. This picture can also describe the 21^st century leaner processing in school organizations.

Compared with the standards of 21^st century learner I explained before, my school has rest on the stage between persuasion and decision. Some technical facilities were established in school campus but still need strength the backstage service security and instructional adoption. The older teaching system and historical culture are the most barriers to innovative pedagogy. Innovation-based disciplines are prepared by school leadership in order to give a policy protection during the process of practice.

Reference:

https://sites.google.com/a/mc2stemhs.net/teacher/Home/21st-century-learners

http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwitr/docs/diffusion/

Activity 2 For Models Of Change

What strategies does your organisation have in place to encourage development, change and innovation? Identify a model of change to help explain.

SHI Yi, Eleven

 

Before I came to HK, I had worked in Channel Zhejiang (Zhejiang Radio & Television Group), which is the best TV Station in local. However, with fierce competition in Chinese media industry, a TV station will die out if without continuous self-improvement. Thus, according to market need, this TV staition re-integrates the channel resources, try to better performance and gain a higher TV rating. 

I suppose the cultural innovation model is most suitable to explain Channel Zhejiang’s development because first, it got strong & well-established cultural and historical foundation, and:

In spite of the common/basic strategies such as: guarantee the quality of the traditional programs, update the program style, hire the famous hosts for the entertainment programs & anchors for news programs, buy high-quality (that can attract more audience) programs from outside (like some film and television making companies) directly, increase the payment to promote employees’ fighting capacity, etc, which adopt by most TV stations; Channel Zhejiang also make talk shows by ‘reusing’ some programs. For instance, a self-made talk show ‘Words On Tongue’ takes some popular entertainment programs, which have been broadcast in Channel Zhejiang before, as its topic, talk about the background of these programs, some program producing tidbits, sometimes also review some interesting pieces of these programs. The guests for this talk show are always the staff who participant the production of these programs as they master all details of these programs. This talk show will attract the fans of these programs, thus, there is no need to hire expensive host or invite high-price guests for this talk show as the audience watch it for liking the programs it talks about, and certainly, this talk show can also formulate its own audience group. ‘Words On Tongue’ finally becomes a low cost but high payback talk show program. We see that, the secret of its success is the TV station realize and dig out the potential & value of each programs and staff, creative a new way to utilize them and gain/keep a high TV rating, which contributes to the favorable development of TV station.

To sum up, the development of Channel Zhejiang is a kind of cultural innovation.

Activity One — Shen Ying

How best would you describe how your organizational learnt?

I am Shen Ying (Nebula), and this is my second semester of master course of ITE in HKU. I completed my bachelor degree in Mainland China, which is much more different with Hong Kong university. Taking into consideration the five principles that are crucial for schoolsto become learning organizations given by Senge et al. (2000), my college can be categorized below average in ICT implementation in education and schoolorganization management.

Ø Personal mastery:

Personal vision and participation is emphasizedin priority in organization management. An awareness of the important relationship among members, leaders and organization promotes the development of personal arrangement when encounter with opportunities or risks inindividual evolution.

Chinese colleges are often weak incultivating individual ability in creative learning and expanding vision, which cause students become rigid for lack offlexibility and lose their independence in thinking and their real ability in judging the value.

Ø Mental models:

Senge et al. (2000) cited that people have mental models, which are often tacit lead to the limitation of people’s ability to change. We sometimes call it inertia thinking, due to the special characterof model. Unlike the common sense, mental model is conscious assumption without strong evidences to support.

In school organization, mental models canbe viewed as the authority from older experts because of a good university enrollment rate or historical background with a solid culture atmosphere. Infact, these models often establish huge barriers to ICT implementation through innovative pedagogy.

Ø Shared vision:

As the mental models exist in school organization, shared vision seems necessary when leadership try to build a legitimate commitment to organization. Communication, sharing and collection give participators one more a chance to rethink their ideas, which make the determination more sustainable.

In my college, such vision sharing is fewto see in organization management. Students are the followers because the decisions are always made totally by school leadership. Bottom-up questioning opportunities are so limited that make students feel scared to put forward suspicion under the power dominion.

Ø Team learning:

Teamwork or group work has already been accepted by the public. So the key point is the degree of acceptance from top leadership when make a decision. Innovative pedagogy often views team learning as the critical criteria when evaluate the innovative progress of one school organization.

In Chinese college, team learning sometimes still stops in the teaching and learning practice, but has no advance in organizational management. Few schools have a sense of democratization, which results in a bottom-up response.

Ø System thinking:

Senge highlighted the combination of components of large structures as a discipline when look at problems and goals.This principal can be classified as organization management with sustainability and transferability.

In my school, problem solving is considered systematically in most time. According to the every five-year plan from the department of education, it gives school a brief instruction in school organization programming.

In summary, using this five disciplines to evaluate my college as a representative of Chinese school, most schools are found below the average of the principals. I am eager to learn more organizational learning in this course in order to get a realization of innovative organization management, which can encourage the ICT implementation in Mainland schools.