The answer might just be both, says Deputy Branch Manager at NASA, Adam Gilmore.
The rocket that first sent humans to the moon was not developed by engineers who dreamt of and prepared for such work their entire lives. Rather, the moon was a celestial body, for which walking on it seemed unfathomable just 10 years before Armstrong’s first steps.
Not all innovators of the future, however, will have the will of their nation behind them in pursuit of something extraordinary. But innovators of tomorrow will be the first to benefit from the titanic shift in information accessibility we witnessed in the last 15 years. Accessing the information is only the first step, however. Learning how to apply that information effectively can be the difference that will change the landscape of society in ways we cannot even imagine.
Innovators are Tinkerers
Today, learning a wide range of skill-sets is at our fingertips. Want to learn how to repair your car? Go to your favorite auto repair blog. Want to learn how to diagnose your medical symptoms? Go to WebMD. Want to learn engineering? Go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) OpenCourseWare. Where do you and your students go to learn innovation?
Innovation is not a skill that is easily learned from others. It does not have to come from a “market need” and it shouldn’t be expected to come from a meeting space designed to foster innovation. If you look at the backgrounds of history’s most famous innovators, you find curious individuals motivated to teach themselves. Their learning style almost always involved an intense ‘field’ application; the learning and the doing were practically synonymous.
“If you look at the backgrounds of history’s most famous innovators, you find curious individuals motivated to teach themselves. Their learning style almost always involved an intense ‘field’ application; the learning and the doing were practically synonymous.”
Can we teach this type of behaviour? I believe we can, but not through a short course or a simple read. Rather, it is a culture that can be developed if we consciously decide to do so.
Formal Education Can Teach Innovation
I believe education should place less emphasis on the traditional factual-based learning and more on application-based learning. Students do not rely exclusively on their teachers for complex subject matter anymore than patients rely exclusively on their doctors for diagnosing symptoms. Rather, they can and do find supplemental information much more efficiently than any generation before. So educators have to change their focus as well.
Educators should place a larger emphasis on the tangible application of information in the classroom rather than the information itself. In contrast with homework focused on practicing classroom material, homework should shift toward more guided self-learning. Accordingly, “classroom” time should have more focus on the application of that learning. This means more time in labs, from horticulture to chemistry to biology to information technology to mathematics. More time in long-term projects. More time persuading. More time running a mock business. More time investigating. More time planning. More time interacting with the community. More time learning to be an innovator.
“Educators should place a larger emphasis on the tangible application of information in the classroom rather than information itself.”
Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”. Never before have so many people had such an opportunity to build upon the work of our predecessors and present day peers. The Internet age has given us unprecedented access to information. It is on us to apply that information and foster widespread innovation in ways we cannot even comprehend. Perhaps by the time I retire, I will be able take a morning stroll on the surface of Mars, have lunch near the rings of Saturn, and return to my Texas home in time for dinner.
Article by Adam Gilmore. Adam works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, USA. As NASA is looking to commercialise its astronaut transport services to the International Space Station, Adam currently leads a team in assessing one company’s viability. Previously, he was a Division Chief Engineer in the Space Shuttle programme, a role he held until the Space Shuttle’s final flight in 2011. He also worked closely with NASA’s international partners during the construction of the International Space Station.
