Presentation for #CNIE2019 conference in Vancouver, BC. There is a predominant belief in innovation circles that failure is a necessary element of innovating. How does that reconcile with education, where failure is a marked value signifying a negative end to a project? Moreover, how does failure affect individualism versus the collective?

1. Failing to Fail Better
Is failure an opportunity
for empowerment…
…or is that a failure?
Rolin Moe, EdD
Director of Academic Innovation
Assistant Professor
Seattle Pacific University
@rmoejo
CC BY 4.0
Paintings: Eugene Delacroix’s The Sea From the
Heights of Dieppe and The Shipwreck of Don Juan.
Both currently on display at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art but *not* part of their open access
collection (on loan from the Louvre)

2. Defining Failure
Hippopotamus “William,” excavated in 1910.
From the Senworsret Reign (1971-1878 BCE) in
Egypt. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public
Domain.
There are numerous ways failure is used in
an educational context. The most socially
conscious of the moment, the failure as
virtue, stands in contrast to the most
historic, failure as a negative end.
*Fail Fast
*Fail Better
*Fixed vs Growth Mindset / Grit
*The “F”
*Failure of Operations

3. Defining Innovation
Innovation is considered a widely
understood term, but its historical
signification and present uses are
often contradictory and problematic.
Operational Innovation
(Political, Religious, Social,
Technological)
Aspirational Innovation
(New Product, New Process, New
Perspective)
Typical Innovation Usage
(Unmodified Hooray Concept)
Frankish Glass ‘Claw” Beaker (5th-6th Century) in
Germany. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public
Domain.

4. Images of Napoleon Bonaparte: Left by Henri de Toulouse Latrec (1895), right a commissioned weaving based
on a portrait by Francois Gerard (1811). Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

5. How do those in the academic innovation community
view the relationship of innovation and failure?
Form: Discursive Analysis
Objective: Identify & analyze
language used alongside
Innovation and Failure in
networked publics
Methodology: Capture language
used in public conversations,
decode for volume as well as
situated contexts
Data Sets:
1) Mass Media
(Chronicle,
InsideHigherEd,
EdSurge)
2) Keynote Addresses
at Innovation Summits
3) Blogs of Dean’s List
Painting: Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel
Luetze (1851). Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain

6. Results: Data
>2,000 Articles (what
constitutes an authentic
article versus a quotation
or rehash?)
>100 authors (multiple
accounts, parody
accounts)
>250,000 words
(abbreviations,
acronyms, hashtags, @
tags)
Data spans nearly 10
years (October 2009 –
yesterday)

7. Data in Context
1) Most innovation conversations
happening at conferences is
spurred by keynotes and
presentations, articulating rather
than negotiating.
2) Outside of conferences, failure in
the same article as innovation
conversation regularly comes from
the sharing of media.
3) When innovation is introduced to a
conversation, it is most often in a
technological context.
4) The most common use of failure in
mass media, when coupled with
innovation, denotes a positive
outcome.
5) The most common use of failure
outside of innovation and higher
education denotes a negative
outcome.
6) Disruption theory is not seen as a
positive in the educational
technology community.

8. Considering the Data & Further Research
1. There is a sizeable disconnect between when
failure is discussed alongside innovation and
when failure is not framed along disruption or
innovation. Failure in this instance seems
remarkably contextual between historical
understanding and a modern subset of failing
better.
2. The vast majority of innovation conversation
starts from a piece of media/essay/keynote
address. While some of these pieces take a
critical perspective on a topic, why do most
media engagements start from a positive
perspective? How does this impact discursive
analysis?
3. Over 100 authors accounts were engaged in this
analysis, but it was an example of the long tail –
80% of articles in three primary sources. What
voices are missing, and what perspectives are
skewed because of the volume of the top media
producers?
4. There is scant pushback on the virtue of failure
when brought up with innovation, but there is a
remarkably large amount of literature about the
negativity of failure outside of innovation
discourse. How does academic innovation
reconcile their perspective on innovation with

9. Questions & Comments
Wild Horse Felled by a Tiger by Eugene Delacroix
(1828) . Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public
Domain.
Tiger Lying at the Entrance of Its Lair by
Eugene Delacroix (1830). Metropolitan
Museum of Art. Public Domain.