Contributor: Teresa MacKinnon @warwicklanguage
Idea: Take a fresh look at the formative assignments you create for your students. How can the output, once you have delivered feedback, become an OER artefact which can be made available online as a resource to inspire others? eg. shared on a Padlet board or a ThingLink.
Practitioner comments: “Producing something for a wider audience brings a focus beyond just the task in hand and can lead to some serendipitous connections.”
Links:
Contributor: Norman Jackson @lifewider1
Idea: Being creative is quite a nebulous thing and its difficult to appreciate what goes into an act of creativity. Blooms taxonomy can be used to raise awareness. Simply challenge learners to create something (anything) and invite them to think about how they brought their creation into existence using the prompts in the taxonomy.
Contributor: Norman Jackson @lifewider1
Idea: The idea that creativity is the production of something novel/original can be a real turn off for most people. Erica McWilliam proposes a new definition that is much more user friendly. Creativity is often the result of making a third ‘thing’ from two existing things or ideas, rather than making something from nothing.
When confronted with a problem in any subject simply challenging learners to connect two seemingly unconnected things to come up with a potential solution can stimulate generative thinking. This is the basis for many design thinking exercises.
For classroom examples see www.creativeacademic.uk/resources (opens new window)
Reference: McWilliam E (2016) Two cheers for STEM three cheers for creativity
http://www.ericamcwilliam.com.au/two-cheers-for-stem-three-cheers-for-creativity/
Contributor: Chrissi Nerantzi @chrissinerantzi
Idea: We are all poets and don’t know it! Words don’t come easy… not always and not to all. Can they come easier through creating a poem with others as a response to a theory, a concept or an event, a situation, that might create a lot of attention, for good or bad? Could poetry help us develop criticality and creativity around a topic and idea etc. while creating community at the same time? Remember, poems don’t need to be written in lines… they can become pictures.
Contributor: Sandra Sinfield @Danceswithcloud
Idea: Collect a range of ‘rich pictures’ – use to seed thinking and discussion – and to model qualitative research methods. In class: Choose one picture that for you represents [a successful educationalist] – write a description of your picture; write why for you it answers the questions, then discuss in pairs or small groups. Each person presents their picture and why it answers the question – others discuss. Plenary – key points that arose…
Practitioner comments: “It helps to unblock thinking – it scaffolds analytical and critical writing as you move from description to analysis of the picture. It unleashes thoughts – it promotes positive discussion – it models qualitative research…”
Credits: “Dave Griffiths introduced me to this idea as a way of getting people to think.”
101creativeideas.wordpress.com 