Tryggvi Thayer is the Director of Educational Development at the School of Education, University of Iceland, and holds a PhD in Education. He has specialized in innovation in teaching and pedagogy, and particularly in the use of futures studies to analyze challenges and opportunities in education.
In his lecture for the IÐA Education Centre, Tryggvi discusses innovation, what it is, and what it is not. “As is often the case with certain concepts, they become fashionable, and many people want to claim them and start defining them in their own way to ensure that what they do falls under them,” says Dr. Tryggvi Thayer, adding that this has been the case with the concept of innovation in many places. “Innovation is not a product; innovation is a process.
This is harder for us Icelanders to grasp than, for example, English speakers, because we don't have this verb, which is 'to innovate'. To us, it sounds like a product, and we need to be clear that when we talk about innovation, we are talking about the creative process that results in something that benefits others in a new way.” In the lecture, Tryggvi discusses various different ways to engage in innovation, gives examples, and reiterates the core of the concept of innovation.
“Getting an idea and using it for yourself is not innovation. Innovation benefits someone else. We need to take this great idea of ours that has benefited ourselves and develop it in such a way that others see meaning, value, and usefulness in it.”