It's Not Just About Ideas

A Sense of Urgency: A reflection on the importance of creating online learning access

Over my two years of spending time with students in high schools as an admissions counselor I have noticed that a lot of students are confused on how the college admissions process works regarding financial aid and much more. Going from high school where all of the instructions are handed to them to going to college and focusing on becoming independent learners and better understanding how to shape our world is scary. We as educators need to prepare our students any way we can so we can help them better understand this digital age and how to learn on their own if they need to.  I watched Simon Sinek in his Ted Talk and he created a diagram he calls the golden circle and with it he explains that the essential element of an inspired leader is to, “think, act and communicate from the inside out” (Sinek, 2010). As an educator, it means that I need to think creatively and effectively when it comes to designing my online platform for students. If I advertise like all of the other websites or companies do, my platform might not be as popular as I need it to be to inspire change in a students life. I truly believe that by applying this knowledge to my online platform, it will indeed help create a better learning environment for students to learn.

For my innovation plan, I can see the need of my students when it comes to college admissions. John Kotter says, ” Whenever your starting a major change, the first step is always getting a sense of urgency up among the people who will be affected and getting all the negative feelings down”(Kotter, 2013). Whenever I start making changes to my online platform, I need to create a sense of urgency in my students and counselors. Simply just giving them access to the online platform is not enough. I need to figure out a way to pitch the platform to them in a way where it creates an urgent need to use it. My Why statement for my innovation plan above creates a small urgency among students and counselors because our students are the ones going through the college process and they are the ones shaping it today with how it works. For example, I have spoken to a lot of students these last two weeks at college fairs. A lot of them don’t mind that we are only on Apply Texas and not on common app but I have come across a few that have walked away after I said we are not on that app. The reason why is because Apply Texas has just changed it system and the new change is a little more complicated for students where common app allows you to apply to multiple colleges at once. This all comes back to my innovation plans main purpose which is to make the college admissions process easier for them by having an online platform where they can go to get admissions help. By creating a sense of urgency with this online platform, I can hopefully convince the counselors and the students that my plan will indeed help and that we need to get started on it right away which directly corresponds to my How statement above.

John Kotter says in his The Heart of Change video, “We need to win over hearts and minds”(Dr. John Kotter, 2011). To me that means I need to be able to convince my target audience that my innovation plan is key to helping solve some of the admissions problems that prevents many students from applying to a university. This is a direct connection to my What statement above because we are hoping that once they have successfully navigated my online platform and learned new information, they will be able to apply that knowledge to their college applications. With all this information, I hope that I will be able to create a sense of urgency and change in the minds and hearts of my students and their counselors.

Sinek, S. (2010, May 4). How great leaders inspire action. http://Www.ted.com. https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?subtitle=en

Kotter, J. (2013). Leading Change: Establish a Sense of Urgency [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yfrj2Y9IlI

Dr. John Kotter. (2011). John Kotter – The Heart of Change. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NKti9MyAAw