In this world of rapidly evolving technologies, educational institutions often struggle to keep up with change. Change often requires a state of readiness at both the micro and macro levels. This paper looks at a tertiary institution that undertook a significant technology change initiative by introducing tablet based components for teaching a hardware course across nine campuses in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) using a Learning By Doing (LBD) philosophy. This paper adopts a readiness for change model (RFC) as a method of evaluating the results from a case study that captured the readiness perceptions of both students and faculty. A survey revealed that, while faculty thought that introducing tablets was a good idea and that there was a high level of RFC, they also thought that the students would learn more about hardware from desktop kits. The students' responses also indicates a high level of RFC with many describing tablets as easier to work on yet they were divided about which technology was better for learning hardware concepts. In this context a high level of readiness for change, while supported by LBD, did not necessarily equate to improved learning and effective change.
In order to confront the continuously growing industry meanwhile, there is an urgent need for next generation innovative mentalities which can handle these changes the best possible way. Knowledgetransfer institutions are major drivers of change in realizing innovative thinking both within institution campuses and beyond campuses in communities and industries at large. Such an innovative mindset is not possible to achieve without the involvement of educators as one of the major influencers of an institution. George Couros in his book, The Innovator's Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent and Lead a Culture of Creativity, has outlined a roadmap for education leaders to change their traditional static mindset and upgrade to an innovative dynamic one through practical examples of innovation.George Couros is a leading educator and a social media influencer. He espouses innovative leadership, teaching, and learning. In addition, he is the creator of Connected Principals.com, an initiative that globally connects educators together to effectively create powerful learning platform for students.
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