School 2.0-NETS Awareness

The video “Shannon Deegan: How Google's 20 Percent Time Fosters Innovation” was very inspirational and educational. Deegan presented many interesting ideas involving inspiring innovation within his company. At the end of most days, he would allow his employees to work on something besides their daily task, something that interested them for about 15 minutes. Just by allowing them to work for short bits of time every day sparked innovation. From that,  Deegan explained how gmail was created by several computer engineers gathered together discussing “What if’s” and brainstorming ideas for creating a more beneficial email. I enjoyed hearing of their success stories of how internet innovation was created by engineers sitting together thinking of new ways of improving technology. In a way, Deegan was demonstrating the NETS 1 of inspiring worker’s creativity. He obviously realized that creativity fosters learning. 

I related this video to the NETS 1 Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity and NETS 2 Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership. As future teacher, I believe it would be beneficial to allow students some time at the end of every school day or maybe even every class, to use creativity to develop, create, or work on something that interests them; whether it be a design, project, craft, or even homework. In addition, teachers can encourage students to collaborate and work on projects in groups as well. This builds social skills, communication skills, and sharing ideas often help students learn to work together and succeed as a group. Giving the students the freedom to work on anything they are interested in and wish to pursue would help to develop curiosity, inspiration, creativity, and innovation. After observing a middle school within my district, I discovered that the last 40minutes of every day is designated to a “fun” and “personal growth” class. Students can choose classes such as body conditioning, sewing/stitching class, cooking class, woodworking, etc. Having a fun non-scholastic class gives the students an interest and usually sparks their interest in school by adding fun into education. These classes also follow the NETS 2 of engaging personal growth.