PIDP 3260 - When New May Not Mean Improved
OK…I confess I am kind of working this out as I type here…so please bear with me.
One of the wonderful things about being in the PIDP program is that it exposes me to so many innovations, new ways of doing things, and cool ideas. Some of these help us organize. Some help student engagement. Some keep us current. But I have to ask…do they make things better?
AI. Gamification. Microcredentials. AI. Flipped classrooms. On-line learning. AI. Extended reality. Asynchronous learning. Interactive whiteboards. AI. Learning management systems. Student engagement techniques. Microlearning. Student assessment techniques. The list goes on, and there are new ideas and innovations popping up by the second.
Oh, and I may not have mentioned that inescapably ubiquitous innovation…AI.
These innovations, tools and concepts can be really useful, and they can help me make my teaching more impactful. However, they also make me think about one of my first powerpoint presentations. It was so cool. I worked hard to learn how to include all of those little “extras” to build in the flashy colours, backgrounds, pictures, sounds, transitions, animations and moving scripts. Yeah, I absolutely killed it mastering all the bells and whistles of the program. And it was awful. The whole thing was a distractingly busy and tricked out presentation that didn’t achieve its purpose. It didn’t effectively support the presentation I was teaching.
Now, I prefer to keep my teaching the main focus. Any powerpoint presentation plays a supporting role - professionally basic with only those “pops” that will support - and not overshadow - my main speaking points.
Stop Gimmick Education, January 29th, 2017
I love this video. Actually, I think it’s a terrible video, but that’s the ironic awesomeness of it. It’s a gimmicky video protesting the use of gimmicks in education.
And it may help support my point…
And that is where I feel my wandering thoughts are going with this. There are so many innovations available, but they take investment and commitment from both the teachers and the students to use. There can be significant effort to acquire or sign up for the tool, a learning curve to use it, and a lot of prep work to roll it out in the class environment. So is it worth it? Is it proven to achieve what is intended? Does it come with unintended consequences? Will mastering and maintaining the tool becomes in itself a demand for time and attention that ultimately distracts from the educational goals of the curriculum?
I like learning new things, and I can get excited about new innovations like they are new toys. I think I am just giving myself cause to really consider if the implementation of a new a new innovation is truly useful, or just a gimmick.
Thanks for dropping in, and we will chat again soon!
~ Jennifer
Resources:
Marechal, J. (2017, January 29). Stop gimmick education [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX5ImlsUzgk
Nerd Voices. (2025, August 19). Virtual reality in education: A gimmick or the future? Nerdbot. https://nerdbot.com/2025/08/19/virtual-reality-in-education-a-gimmick-or-the-future/
Teachers Institute. (2024, January 20). Different types of innovations shaping the future of education. Teachers Institute. https://teachers.institute/learning-teaching/innovations-future-education-types/
Tuhin, M. (2025, March 27). How AI is shaping the future of education and learning. Science News Today. https://www.sciencenewstoday.org/how-ai-is-shaping-the-future-of-education-and-learning
Zimmer, G. (2016, December 3). The Edtech world is a “swamp of gimmicks” - and here’s how we can drain it. EdSurge. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-12-03-the-edtech-world-is-a-swamp-of-gimmicks-and-here-s-how-we-can-drain-it
