Generating Creativity
In my Innovation Fellowship, we have been discussing how to generate creativity in our lives, classrooms, and institution. We started with a quiz and then considered a series of prompts.
I love this Creative Type quiz from Adobe. I’m a sucker for personality tests. Very appropriately, I am an Innovator:
“The INNOVATOR sees everything through the lens of possibilities and progress, problems and solutions. You feel the most yourself when you’re using your intellectual and creative powers to solve problems and dream up new and improved ways of doing things. Your attention is largely focused on the world around you, and you’re constantly probing its structures and systems to find ways to push things forward.
Change may be scary for most people, but for you, it’s fuel for your creative fire. A pioneer and trailblazer, you’re here on this planet to light the way into the future, helping the rest of us learn to adapt and thrive in times of rapid and unpredictable change.
You’re a natural risk-taker, with an insatiable desire to expand boundaries and explore uncharted territories. You’re not one to do things the way they’ve always been done. You thrive when working in service of large-scale change and progress, and your talents equip you well for roles that allow you to experiment and play with ideas.
Beware when the initial spark of inspiration starts to wear off and you feel tempted to move on to the next big thing a little too quickly. INNOVATORS tap into their greater potential when they learn to master the art of the follow-through. By finding joy in the “messy middle” of a venture—not just the excitement of the beginning or the satisfaction of reaching the finish line—you’ll become a true creative powerhouse.
Seek out creative partnerships with MAKER types, who have the stamina and dedication to take any idea from concept to completion. Seeing the MAKER in action reminds you that taking it one step at a time is a much more effective creative strategy than racing to the finish line.”
I have a rule that students cannot say "I'm not creative." They also can't say "I'm bad at history." We use growth mindset here, people! :)
Another way students can unlearn this thought about themselves is to be presented with examples, given a list of parameters, and given a list of possible topics. I find this helps students who are stuck to get moving.
Also, I try to point out when a student has come up with a creative solution in a discussion or shown a creative thought in a paper or even made a creative choice with their wardrobe. I want to reinforce it so they can see where they are already creative.
I have a 7-year-old daughter who is very creative. I'm sure she'd score high on the NASA test! When she tells me that she's bored, I say "great! time to create!" She is a night owl and will play in her room after we say goodnight. We don't require that she tidy her room except on Fridays. So, throughout the week you can step on any number of puzzles, animal villages, magnetic block castles, etc. She loves to mix and match materials, so I think the author The Medici Effect would be proud.
Thanks also to my colleague for his article “Finding Your Lost Creativity”.
The American Indian Museum in NYC has an exhibit dedicated to Native innovation, as the Smithsonian explains. “None of this was a mistake... It was a culture of scientific development... Native innovation [is] a living thing."
Further:
“People are endlessly creative in solving problems,” says Gover. “Native Americans were no different and no less skilled at solving problems.” But the drastic decline in the indigenous population after European contact—some estimates suggest up to 90 percent of the population died—took a heavy toll on the Native body of knowledge. “We’ll never know all the knowledge that died along with them,” he says. “We’ll only have a shadow of what they knew.”
One of the reasons I'm not relating to The Medici Effect is because the author spends so much time on the leaders of big corporations - people who make a lot of money and have a lot of resources at their disposal. I know we talked about this on Friday. I'm not counting out his examples. I did like the "corporate rebel" he mentioned who dressed opposite expectations. She was cool because although her methods were different, her results were proven and people trusted her.
I think this is one way to create a "renaissance" within HCC - to have proven results. We are concerned with student success. If we can prove that students are more successful when innovative results are employed, then others will be more receptive to innovation.
Today, in my virtual class, I took students through Mission: US a choose-your-own-adventure gaming platform developed by PBS that puts you in the middle of a historical scenario and asks you to make choices. This particular adventure follows a young apprentice in Boston a few years before the Revolutionary War. As I went through the "game", I stopped to expound, to connect to previous learning, and to ask questions. Here's the kicker: they are about to read/should already be reading a 300-page social history of Boston written by a historian. Those students who hadn't even started are suddenly confident they can read this book because I hooked them with a fun activity and they now have some context to get started. Results!
Prompt: As a mental challenge, we want to take something and do something and do something else. We want to destroy the way something has been used, and do something to use it differently. Look around you right now - as you are reading this - and pick out something that you can see. Thinking of the item you just picked, try to think of as many uses for it as possible excluding its “normal” or intended use.
My Response:
Object: Planter
Alternate uses:
Ice chest
Turn over and use as a footstool
Buried treasure
Aquarium
Bookshelf
Light fixture
Movie screen
Hide and seek vessel
Boat
Play castle
