Accelerative Learning: ICAL's Innovationeer Class

ICAL's Spotlight

ICAL’s Innovationeer Class at Spelman College

In January 2008, ICAL presented at the IAL Conference in Atlanta. Representatives from Spelman College attended the session and afterwards, approached ICAL about offering Accelerative Learning at their school.

The result was an ICAL Innovation class, offered as a part of the Early College Registration program. The class was a 40 hour module, an excerpt from ICAL’s full 720 hour Innovationeer Program. Twenty-three high school students were chosen to attend the class. These girls traveled from all over the country to attend the 5-week program. The ICAL Innovationeer class ran for 90 minutes each day for the five week period.

What is an ICAL Innovationeer Class?

Our program teaches young people how to be innovative and how to think innovatively. These are crucial skills in the 21st century. Knowing basic knowledge is not enough in today’s world since the speed of change is producing new knowledge 50 to 100 times more quickly than a century ago. Knowing how to learn new information quickly is more important than knowing old information.

Knowing how to think critically and adapt to continuous change is more important than memorizing facts. Being innovative is not a skill that is taught in school. In this age of information, you’ll never be able to learn all you have to know. So ICAL focuses on developing agile learners, students who can think, adapt and are interested in learning.

Our Innovationeer Class focuses on developing 38 innovationeer skills: globalization skills (such as leadership, outsourcing and responsiveness), life long learning skills (such as networking, creating solutions and anticipating) and knowledge economy skills (such as team working, sensing and adapting). The Innovationeers don’t just learn about the skills, they actually acquire the skills. The program opens the eyes of students to the possibilities that exist out there and opens the door to acquiring the skills to reach their future potential.

Throughout the class, students participate in many activities, exercises, projects and presentations. Through the experience of the activities, they acquire the skills. There is a rigorous grading rubric and by the end of the program, based on their grades and performance, students are granted a certificate in a particular skill. They also evaluate their own performance and designate one of the 38 skills as one they have mastered.

This class at Spelman was a hologram of a much longer and elaborate program. However, examining the 38 skills, students bestowed upon themselves one skill and ICAL granted them another skill, so after only 40 hours, students walked away with two skills that they can use for the rest of their lives. The light in their eyes was ignited or brightened.

Innovationeering skills and the output of this program are embodied in the students and that they take with them for the rest of their lives.