Seeing things differently

When I first came to the UK from Sweden I got a job as a Guest Porter in a fancy hotel in Cambridge. This was a real learning experience for me particularly when it came to day-to-day language. For example colleagues would ask, pretty much daily, if I was ‘alright’. Now this may not seem like an odd question to most, however, I felt that although they may be concerned about my well-being, I certainly was ‘alright’ as there was nothing wrong with me mate. Today I see what they meant. Strangely enough I was never lynched.

In a similar vein, the 3 minute talk below deals with those simple issues that can very easily be misunderstood although you wouldn’t think that asking for direction could be so different?

What are you doing, you know, generally?

I came across dawdlr whilst browsing Russel M Davies’s blog. According to Davies, he wanted to create a really slow version of Twitter. In his view:

Something less rushed and immediate but still brilliantly rich and daft.

To contribute to this tiny global community you must answer the simple question:  What are you doing, you know, more generally? – on a postcard and send it to Russel Davies. When Davies means a ’slow’ version of Twitter, he really means slow as he scans each postcard and uploads it to dawdlr every 6 months. The point, according to him, is to see how far something this slow can become viral or if it will stop all together. Ingenious.

example from dawdlr

It would be very interesting if this was replicated for education. Perhaps if it was aimed at students the question could be:

What have you learnt in school, you know, that you can use in life?

Or if it was geared towards teaching professionals, perhaps something like this:

Have you made it relevant enough, you know, so students really got it?

If you can think of more creative ways of using this approach, just add a comment. By the way, what are you waiting for, head over to dawdlr and get the address!

If you find these videos interesting why not also take a look at the Eat.Sleep.Teach channel on YouTube.com?

Creativity and Innovation

This fifth post looks at ways in which students and teachers can improve the way they express ideas and communicate their understanding of key issues. I have also mentioned how cross-pollination into different spheres can help improve our practice as teachers – if you find this topic of particular interest please visit EatSleepTeach.com for more ideas.

Create Kaleidoscopes for Learning

I came across the FoldPlay website  in one of @creativetallis‘ Tweets (well worth following for great ideas). This creative tool lets you upload a number of images and then download  a .JPG kaleidoscope of your creation including instructions for putting it together – very cool. There is also a slideshow with still images which shows you step-by-step how to construct it. This would be a great addition to a task for students where they have to convey their understanding of a concept by selecting a number of images that together shape the meaning of that particular concept.

Here’s an example:

Making a Point

In Ideas for Learning and Creativity #3 I added the superb poem/talk by Taylor Mali as it shows how powerful public speaking can be with the right script and preparation (amongst other things). The following clip involves a different type of public speaking and demonstrates that age does not have to be an obstacle to a sincere and compelling speech. Truly inspiring.

Cross-Pollination

I have always tried to keep an eye on what other industries get up to, apart from education, for example how business view CPD, collaboration and the way they present information to customers. This cross-pollination of ideas is essential, in my opinion, so that our teaching practice and pedagogical ideas do not become insular and we can instead progress and explore new avenues. There are many books that can help you explore and make cross-pollination a regular aspect of your work, see this list. I also subscribe to different newsletters/RSS feeds or podcasts to keep in the loop of the ever changing world of innovation. One particularly useful source of information which I was suggested by Scott Hewitt of Real Projects recently, is the Harvard Business School – Working Knowledge . This website gives its readers insight into the cutting-edge thinking and research that is taking place place at Harvard and covers a wide range of topics and interests – well worth looking into even if you’re not interested in Business or Technology as they cover many other areas as well.

ICT and E-Learning

The Creative Beast

It’s hard to think of easy-to-use and cheap methods of producing high-quality media.

This is one of the most simple but creative ways of using text, images and post-its to communicate a message. The potential for using this format is immense whether one uses frame-by-frame animation in Adobe Flash or with a camcorder or digital camera, the results could be tremendous and the creative output for students very positive.

Besty Streeter blogs at Betsy Streeter .

WeToku: interviews made simple

WeToku was set up, according to the founders of this Korean website, because one of the team members, James, insistence that he was a true celebrity but found interviews face-to-face too inconvenient, so they made it easy for him by creating the website. Whatever the reason behind this nifty tool, it is a good resource if you want to invite someone for a meeting or to interview them for blog as you can record and then embed the video immediately afterwards. This has real potential particularly if you’re brave and decided to invite someone you’re inspired by for an interview – can you think of someone, I definitely can! WeToku can really make your blog even more interesting – I have scheduled an interview already.

Here’s an interview with Guy Kawasaki – discussion about the quality of the interviewer’s questions and prep is discussed on the website…

Clever Online PDF/PowerPoint Viewer

Have you ever tried the Google Docs Viewer ? This is a superb tool if you want to display PowerPoint presentations, like in SlideShare but without having to sign up, on your webpages. You can also embed PDF files which is a handy little feature, like this:

This third post on Ideas for Learning and Creativity explores ways in which both teachers and students can communicate in a range of different ways; from public speaking, writing, composing or using technology to make an impact on their audiences. This post contains more video clips than other post in this series (see #1 and #2 for more ideas) but each one is definitely worth watching.

Creativity and Innovation

So, what do teachers make in a year?

In this powerful 3 minute clip, the poet Taylor Mali defends the teaching profession at the Bowery Poetry Club (Nov. 2005). Mali’s explanation is an uplifting – yet with a bitter undertone – explanation about what impact we as teachers can have on students’ learning. It is also a great example that creative public speaking does not have to lengthy to be either convincing or powerful.

Reading is Changing

I ran a couple of sessions at the Norfolk Schools ICT Conference last week where Steven Moss of Partnerships Schools discussed the significance of using technology in the classroom whilst pointing out the fact that not all use of ICT is effective (you can download his presentation here ). He went on to argue that we need to rethink and re-structure the way we teach young learners as we are using the same pedagogies we used at the start of the century but that students have changed the way they learn. This is a very potent issue as students now have an array of sources to learn from, unlike 20 years ago. They are now learning through interactions, new ways of communicating, instant feedback via webinars, VLEs, Skype, IM and so on.

I came across the following video clip from TVO.org (Ontario, USA, public educational media organisation) a while ago and it continues the discussion raised above and centers around the question: Is technology destryoing students’ ability to write? This is a very interested clip and it looks at how far technology has improved students’ ability to work with text e.g. that WEB 2.0 has provided learners with the opportunity to access material; and brings up the issue that, in many respects, students perform their ideas and thoughts in different ways than by just writing and that our methods of teaching must begin to meet these new ways of learning.

Is technology destryoing students’ ability to write? from TVO.org

Audience Participation

I spotted a link to this video on Twitter a few days ago when it was posted by Dughall (worth following for great links, ideas and discussions). It shows how a simple scale can engage an entire audience whilst at the same time compose a piece of music together. There is a lot we can learn from Bobby McFerrin’s in this clip about engagement and how to bring out the best of whole class teaching.

Whole class participation is a difficult task to achieve both in terms of logistics, outcomes and your patience (!) but a worthwhile endeavor. Some subjects are more difficult than others but as a starter activity it can really get a class excited about the lesson. For example, try getting students working in ‘character’, attempt whole-class composition or deconstructing text, use active learning when piecing together essays and or for assessments. Take a look at these ideas for whole class participation:

Create ‘interactive diagrams’ with the whole class

Discuss the Grey Matter: Continuums involving the whole class

More ideas in this book: Exam Class Toolkit - how to create engaging lessons that ensure progression and results:

ICT and E-Learning

Games as assessments

Games are essentially assessments – but games do not seperate learning from the game unlike traditional education where pupils learn and then they are tested. – James Paul Glee

The game manual is sometimes as complex as a standard textbook. James Paul Glee, for example, gave up reading the manual as it was too complex. He played the game for a while and then returned to the manual and suddenly it all made sense because he had seen what the terminology was referrring to in the game. Like a textbook, the words are connected to a game, for example the game of History – what historians do like source analysis, unveiling mysteries of the past, interpreting information. He then used the game manual as a reference in case he wanted to look something up or tweak something he knew but wanted to explore further. Glee states that you should do the same with a textbook, use it to look up and reference material. Very interesting video.

Technology that Matters

Terry Haydn at the University of East Anglia showed me this superb viral video produced by MoveOn.org under the fake name of CNNBCVideo. It was created to show what could happen if people didn’t vote for Obama in the general election. One segment of the video asks the question “How long until we nuke Iran? Experts say it may be as early as Saturday, around lunchtime“.

This is a very interesting clip for many reasons, not only because of the importance of political change, but it also shows students how powerful media and technology really can be. It can also encourages students to explore using ICT in more creative ways and consider how technology can assist in conveying key messages or clouding the accuracy of others.

How Google Search Works

I came across this Youtube video on Steven Anderson’s blog WEB2 Classroom and thought I’d share it with you – great to show students how (apparently) a search engine works.

This second post on Ideas for Learning and Creativity looks at examples from very diverse fields which we could use as teachers to enhance the way we think about learning, how we deliver lessons and what type of resources we create and use with our students. This cross-pollination of ideas is becoming more essential as children are exposed to a wider range of sources compared to only 4-5 years ago. If you find this subject of interest then please visit my development blog that I co-write together with Neal Watkin (@nwatkin) over at EatSleepTeach.com.

Creativity and Innovation

Chris Abani

It is seldom you come across people who can move their audiences with such ease and with such sincerity. One such person is Chris Abani. I first came across him when I was browsing the TED.com website for interesting material for a workshop I was running and I have been a fan ever since. Chris Abani’s was first imprisoned after publishing his first novel as a 16 year old about a fictitious Nigerian coup and was later imprisoned again by the Nigerian government. He turned his difficult experiences into poems and stories (see review of one of his books here).  His books and talks provide good possibilities to show students the power of contrasts and his messages can resonate with their lives as he brings out everyday issues relevant to them. His talks also provide a great opportunity to show that speaking in public does not have to be complex as long as the story is clear and the contact with the audience honest as the video below shows.

This is probably one of my favorite talks. His mixture of comedy and sudden switch to the complexities of humanity is simply astounding.

Chris muses on humanity on TED.com

Drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us

I mentioned Dan Pink in the last post on Ideas for Learning and Creativity and his latest book is certainly worth mentioning in this one. Drive tries to break the myth that carrots, like financial rewards for example, does not lead to increased motivation at work 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.

This video explores the idea of reward as a de-motivator, perhaps not exactly what Pink had in mind but funny nonetheless.

Solving creative stagnation the Sagmeister way

Stefan Sagmeister, a German born designer, realised that his studio was coasting, lacked spark and innovative ideas – not good for a forward thinking design studio. To halt the continuation of a potentially dire future Stefan and his team decided to take time off. Sounds pretty straight forward so far. In his view, we spend approximately 25 years of our lives learning, then there’s another 40 years for working and 15 for retirement. To combat this lack of creativity and drive, Sagmeister decided to take 5 of the 15 retirement years and intersperse them with the working years leaving 1 year sabbatical every seven years.

1 Year off every 7 Years?

He claims that his time away from work and the new experiences this provided him with, gave him so many new avenues to consider once back in the studio. For example, when he was on his second sabbatical he was regularly attacked by street dogs on his morning walks in Bali so he decided to create one t-shirt for all the different dog breeds and added this little message on the back:

Idea whilst being attacked my dogs : )

Most of the design ideas Sagmeister produced over the next 7 years came from that sabbatical. Take a look at his website to discover his amazing work. Sagmeister does not advocate that you ‘just take time off’ without planning your sabbatical. On the contrary, he tried that and it did not work. He produced a timetable for thinking and stuck to it and there is of course that tiny little detail of funding your time off…

It’s certainly important that we consider the lessons learned from Stefan Sagmeister and allow students time to reflect on their learning. But most importantly that we, their teachers, take time off to think and not only switch off. How many of us stop thinking during half-term and just relax? This is not to say that relaxation is not important, in fact it’s essential. However, moving forward and becoming more creative requires us to broaden our horizons just like Sagmeister – but we’ll have to do it in 6 weeks! Why not plan your summer holiday next time and include moments of reflection and new experiences (no, the beach/pool does not count…well, that depends on what happens I guess).

ICT and e-Learning

Garageband.com

This is a portal for independent artists where you can buy, and download for free (certain files only) music produced by bands and singers not yet on a record label. It also provides artists with the opportunity to promote their music, websites and gigs. I love this website as you not only discover new and interesting music from a range of genres, but there are also many groups and artists that give you the opportunity to download their music free of charge. This is brilliant if you develop websites, e-Learning content, videos and so on for educational purposes as long as you provide a link to the artists’ page on Garageband.com.

Google Squared

Google Squared takes a search term and creates a starter ‘square‘ of information, automatically fetching and organising information from across the web (see image below). This is an excellent tool for students if they need to compare and investigate a range of information and Google Sqaure makes that a easier as they don’t need to trawl through an array of different websites to get a good overview of a topic. It is worth pointing out that the information gathered is based on the best attribute values for each item in the Square so this means that information is, as always, open to interpretation.

Useful way of searching for students

You can add more columns to extract even more information based on a number of different categories depending on what you searched for. When you are happy with your square you can share the link (if you sign into your Google Account), save it, and send it to FaceBook and Twitter. One clever feature is if you find that something is missing from the square then you simply do an additional search and choose ‘Add to this Square’ after which the new search term is added at the end of the original one.

Here are a couple of examples:

Square: Cloud types

Square: Civil Rights Leaders

This is the first in a series of posts about ideas for learning and creativity that I have come across. I hope these posts will provide helpful advice about online resources and creative ideas that may help the delivery of lessons and encourage and challenge students to learn and think creatively.

Creativity and Innovation

Oblique Strategies

This is a set of 100 cards each which will offer suggestions to a course of action or thinking to help break deadlocks or open up your creative thinking. One of my favourite Oblique Strategies:

- Take a Break
- Make an exhaustive list of things you want to do and do the last one on the list
- What is the simplest solution?
- Where is the edge?

Ideas in abundance

From the introduction to the 2001 edition:

These cards evolved from separate observations of the principles underlying what we were doing. Sometimes they were recognised in retrospect (intellect catching up with intuition), sometimes they were identified as they were happening, sometimes they were formulated. They can be used as a pack, or by drawing a single card from the shuffled pack when a dilemma occurs in a working situation. In this case the card is trusted even if its appropriateness is quite unclear… (Wiki Entry)

I have found these cards to be invaluable in assisting in moving creative discussions forward, particularly when writing.

The cards are a little tricky to get hold of unless you buy them from the authors website and there are two sellers on Amazon that provide copies as well (same price as authors).

Danielpink.com

This is one of my favourite blogs/websites which I read weekly. It is owned and run by Dan Pink, author of the superb A Whole New Mind (see review here) and most recently Drive – the surprising truth about what motivates us. Dan Pink is exceptionally good at finding those interesting, thoughtful and, at times, quirky stories which make you think. In short, a very creative blog and his books echo his desire to discover and reflect on his experiences.

Here’s an interesting photo: emotioanlly intelligent signage - something I found on Pink’s blog:

The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers – LXD

Whether you have become wrapped up in the latest Street Dance craze or not do watch this brief video from TED 2010 because it goes beyond ordinary dance and raises interesting questions about taking creativity to a different level by using technology and social media. Jon Chu, speaking at TED 2010, introduces the dance troupe and the power of technology very succinctly:

…with online video and Social Networking dancers have created a whole global laboratory online: kids in Japan are taking moves from YouTube videos created in Detroit, building on it and within days releasing a new video while teenagers in California are…remixing it to create a whole new dance and style in itself.

The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers also have a good website with more performances and interviews: The LXD.com

Here’s the video from TED.com

ICT and E-Learning

Prezi

Prezi has become a popular presentation tool for many. I came across this creative presentation about using Prezi, well worth a look even if you are already familiar with Prezi:

ZinePal.com

Does what it says on the tin: creates PDF files from any online content so if you want your students to get a copy of the latest updates from your Learning Platform’s teacher’s blog then this tool is great. Similarly, if you want to send out regular activities, updates, or just want to give readers to opportunity to download your archived articles ZinePal is the tool for you. I love it. Here’s an example:

Blog Posts using ZinePal.com