The Ideation Phase Our group worked collaboratively on the Ideation Phase by working through the checklist provided. As a pre-brainstorming activity we took one minute to draw the person next to us. As in this week’s video with Tim Brown there was discomfort, embarrassment, and apologies … but it did create an accepting environment for us to proceed through the brainstorming. We reviewed the question we had developed over the course of the last few weeks (How can we begin to cultivate an environment of mutual understanding that ensures all students and staff are contributing members of a culturally diverse environment?), and then spent 10-15 minutes brainstorming individual ideas on a shared google doc. Our goal was for each person to come up with 25 ideas to meet the 100 Idea Challenge. That was followed by a discussion of how we could group the ideas, and a realization that there were ideas that were repeated, in one form or another, by more than one member of the group. We decided that we would each choose what we thought were three solid ideas from the other members of the group to narrow down the list to ideas we felt were inspiring or “most likely to delight” our end user. Next, we decided to arrange our post-its into common groups, and gave those categories names to help with the grouping. We felt that all of the ideas were promising and do-able, and could be of real value to the end users, but in the end chose one category to zero in on: A schoolwide campaign. We followed this up by considering possible constraints to this project, things such as potential opposition (parents, community groups, religious leaders, some teachers), cost (materials/supplies/curriculum, speakers, assemblies, field trips), time constraints (planning time, dedicating class time), but felt that we could address the constraints with potential funding sources such as grants, Donors Choose, crowdfunding sources, and/or fundraising events. I contributed to this work by providing a work space (my dining room table) and materials (post-its) and I took notes on our checklist to keep us focused on the task at hand. I also participated in the brainstorming and grouping process, and discussion of how to proceed through each step (protocols). I know I was challenged, and I think as a whole group we were a bit challenged to come up with at least 100 ideas, especially out of the box ideas. We tend to be a very practical, goal-oriented group, and I think we struggle to think of things that are “long shot ideas.” Also, we did reach a point of fatigue and I don’t think we were as effective in attending to the tasks at the end of the checklist because of that (and because of time constraints.) Because of this I think the process could be enhanced by splitting it into three smaller segments (1) brainstorming and sharing out initial ideas, then taking more time to brainstorm further by bouncing off each other’s ideas, then coming back together to group ideas into common themes (2) Discussion of constraints, and how those constraints might be addressed (3) Summarizing our thinking, our final ideas, into simple sentences, choosing experts to help with the next phase (experimentation), and zeroing in on how we will move forward. I think that kind of process would also work at my school site, and definitely with the student population I work with (fifth and sixth graders). Some characteristics of creativity reflected in the Ideation Phase include curiosity (asking questions that may not have easily identified answers), generation of lots of ideas (brainstorming), risk taking, and divergent thinking (out of the box thinking.) | Ideation, Phase 1Ideation, Phase 2 |
0 Comments
|