Make Ideas Happen

Have you ever wondered why some ideas work where others fail; or why some individuals whom in your mind lack creative flare succeed where other creative geniuses do not? Scott Belsky, founder of The Behance Network and The 99% think-tank, argues that in order for our ideas to be productive and long-lasting we must first be organised and work as part of, or have the support from, a community of people. On a personal note, I ‘m currently leading a major county-wide project involving more than 100 schools and my ideas for supporting them to ensure they deliver their funded outcomes have been plentiful but without a dedicated approach to project-management many of the networks may not have been successful. Belsky’s book, particularly the chapter on ‘Action Steps’ have helped to organise both my time and the way I work. A real gem and a good read with many interesting case-studies about creativity and organisation of work.

Other books which provide a good read on organisation, creativity and ideas: Made to Stick: why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck , The Back of a Napkin:solving problems and ideas in pictures and many others.

Wisdom of Crowds

I have always found crowd-sourcing to be an interesting way of aggregating information whilst sharing ideas since reading Leadbeater’s We Think. What separates Surowiecki’s ideas with many others is the depth he provides the reader and the multitude of practical examples including the nature of brainstorming, problems with Group-Think, the importance of diversifying and how to extend info-cascading to purposeful information gathering. On the plus side, Wisdom of Crowds is also very well written, at times humorous and immensely useful.

Other excellent books which provide ideas and theories behind successful crowd-sourcing include:
Crowdsourcing: How the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business and of course Charles Leadbeater’s We-Think: Mass innovation, not mass production and many others

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Drive tries to break the myth that carrots, like financial rewards for example, do not lead to increased motivation at work/school in the 21st Century. Pink goes on to discuss his theory, based on four decades of research, that true motivation only happens when an individual becomes autonomous, has true purpose in what they do and has the opportunity to move towards mastery in their field.

Although this book was written with businesses in mind, many aspect of his ideas and theories can easily be incorporated in education. For example, as teachers we already provide students with a sense of purpose, or at least try to achieve this by showing them that skills learned in lessons matter in real life (see these two post which deal with many of these issues: Big Ideas and Creative Ideas from the industry).

Another interesting discovery by Pink was that companies’ productivity and profits did not increase if they offered financial incentives to their employees because although some people might have worked harder, it didn’t mean the quality of their work improved. What about your class? If you tell students they will get As and Bs if they work harder, how many of your students will actually work harder? Be honest. Virtually none? However, companies that provided employees with a sense of autonomy, purpose, training and support to become better at what they did, improved significantly. Similarly, if you can engage students to want to learn, they will realise that working hard at something leads to increased progression (mastery). Suddenly, your subject will become more important to them because they know they can achieve. Using Drive ideas in the classroom is something worth exploring. There is also a Drive Audio Book for those of you that travel a lot.

100 Ideas for Essential Teaching Skills has been translated to Chinese! We’re very excited!

100 Ideas for Essential Teaching Skills

Ian Harris, Oliver Caviglioli, and Carol Thompson

Thinking Skills and Eye Q: Visual Tools for Raising Intelligence is perhaps one of the best books available on mind-mapping and Thinking Skills diagrams. Many of the ideas you’ll come across on this website has been inspired from Thinking Skills and Eye-Q.

I first came across this book as a Newly Qualified Teacher in 2002, and began using it with a particularly challenging top set year 8. It didn’t take long before the whole class was working hard at tackling the various Thinking Skills mysteries and diagrams that I had planned for them. It worked. Since then I naturally plan lessons with the ideas from this book in mind for all my students (11-19 years old).

I have used this book during INSET with departments as it works through strategies to encourage and develop a range of skills particularly for thinking, writing, but also discusses methods to use for Gifted and Talented students, and to make speaking, listening, questioning and responding an intergral part of lessons.

If you are planning to start a new Scheme of Work of simply wish to plan a series of great, challenging and stimulating lessons then this book is for you as it is packed with ideas.

If you have a chance to attend one of their workshops you will not regret it as they are outstanding!

Recent books added to ‘Great Books’ section of www.InnovativeICT.net:

Gary Rosenzweig

If you have basic knowledge of Adobe Flash but do not have time to master the more complex elements of the software and still want to learn how to create great games then this book really does the job well. Gary Rosenzweig’s book is straight forward and explains everything clearly and in an interesting way. The book is very pedagogical and goes through the essentials step-by-step and covers a range of different games and activities that can be mdofied and used in the classroom for example:

• Jigsaws
• Paddle and Racing games
• Memory activities
• Platform games
• Drag & Drop
• and many many other

Gary Rosenweig has recently come out with a new book ActionScript 3.0 Game Programming Universitywhich is a superb addition to the keen Flash enthusiast. His website is also a brilliant resource to take your Flash skills further.

There are other great books on creating Flash Games which are equally useful. Some of these are more complex for the beginner but they do provide the reader with outstanding files which easily can be tweaked to suit your own classes. For example:

Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Game Development with CD-ROM by Glen Rhodes: although you would benefit from reading Rosenzweig’s book before tackling this one, G. Rhodes’ book on developing games in Flash does go through the basics of ActionScripting and the files you get are excellent!

Nintendo Wii Flash Game Creator’s Guide: Design, Develop, and Share Your Games Online: this is a cheap, fun book which shows you how to create games which you can play on the Nintendo Wii – excellent idea!

There are so many books on flash gaming out there but these really move you in the right direction if you wish to develop games for your own students.