Creativity

Equity Leaders & Guides at STCC and Beyond

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Late last year I was awarded a $75,000 Massachusetts Higher Education Innovation Fund grant from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.  The initial grant  concept was to train 20 faculty.  However, between January and June I was able to train 21 faculty and 9 staff members on the Springfield Technical Community College Campus.

I am so proud of how hard these leaders have worked to hone their equity skills. Work continues until September 21, 2023 and I am already working on a consortium grant proposal that will expand these leadership concepts to the regional level.

Imagination and Creativity in Education

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“Teaching’s primary purpose should be to ensure that every student graduates ready to tinker, create, and take initiative.”

  • What if quizzes measured kid’s ability to question, not answer?
  • What if a math class’s textbook was replaced with open-ended, thought-provoking opportunities to question the world around us?
  • What if -within a teaching day- teachers were able to strike a balance between art and science; considering the art as the relationship the teacher built with the kids, and the science as the assessment that generated real evidence of student growth?
  • What if teachers tracked narratives of a student’s progress? And used a handy management tool to capture anecdotal notes and evidence of student growth?
  • What if teachers were able to identify and analyze students’ strengths and skill gaps; continuously?  And were able to turn classroom data into plans of action?
  • What if teachers taught their students how to do this type of thinking, so the student could be self-directed?

“We live in a world where information is growing exponentially. Let’s use tinkering and initiative to foster more creativity.”

Caine’s Arcade

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A 9 year old boy who built an elaborate cardboard arcade in his dad’s used auto parts store is about to have the best day of his life. You have got to take 10 minutes and watch this sweet video about imagination, loving what you do, being an entrepreneur and the power of social media. This is a video that teachers should share with their students, no matter their age.  I love how proud Caine is when he is showing us his work.  After you watch the video, head over to Caine’s website. I know you’ll get chills, goosebumps and might even cry….but it’ll make your day.

36 UIs In 30 Locations

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When to know enough is just enough. Ericsson had too much information and needed a message to communicate how a multi-purpose, multi-technology network node enables operators to meet their three priorities in relation to data traffic explosion: differentiation, control and monetization.

The above video is work that makes you jealous, inspires and does both simultaneously.  The beauty of this video is that it is a great example of the changing nature of how instruction can communicate an idea [not just a product].  It shows how Ericsson moves data around, and why it matters.

The House of Radon did the creative work and really hit the nail on making sense out of a concept. The video’s message “appeals to the senses.” Data, nodes, operators, differentiation–all of these ideas in Ericsson’s brief are just so much insubstantial vapor. House of Radon’s video translates them into snappy factoids, which helps. But the idea of embedding them into physically appealing touchscreen interfaces–and then embedding those into a series of viscerally evocative first-person live-action scenelets, where just a hint of sound effects and out-of-focus background action instantly tells your five senses everything they need to know about what’s happening outside the edges of the frame–that’s what makes Ericsson’s brief make sense.

House of Radon’s relentless cutting from new interface/location to new interface/location, three dozen times, is an essential part of getting the message across. As more and more innovative companies find themselves “selling” invisible-but-essential ideas, this kind of advertising-as-sensemaking becomes more valuable than any glib “Got Milk?”-style product campaign ever could be. Does every spot need to cram in 30-odd interfaces and locations to make its point? Of course not. But the designers behind this House of Radon spot know that, sometimes, “too much” is just enough.

iBook Author by Apple

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There are times in an instructional designer’s life when the game changes and Apple has just changed the game-again. This time it is with their iBook Author.  Those who are considering an elearning situation, should consider using this new tool. The ability to interact with the content built in iBooks is amazing for all types of learners. Integrating audio and video right into the iBook allows the learners to integrate with the content.

Anyone who needs a workbook, textbook, manual. job aid, even a magazine, or newsletter should consider this type of learning aid. I will be getting mine soon.

This amazing new [FREE] app iBook Author allows anyone to create beautiful Multi-Touch textbooks — and just about any other kind of book — for iPad. With galleries, video, interactive diagrams, 3D objects, and more, these books bring content to life in ways the printed page never could.

This application has the ability to drag and drop text, images, graphics, video, movies and more into the template.  Apple’s Widgets add Multi-Touch magic to books with interactive photo galleries that bring images to life, engrossing 3D objects you can’t help interacting with, animations that burst off the page, and more.

Another beautiful thing about iBooks Author, it lets you create books that people with disabilities can read and experience. The table of contents, glossary, widgets, main text, and more are built to automatically take advantage of VoiceOver technology. Add accessibility descriptions to any widget or media — including movies and quizzes — so even those with vision impairments can use them.

And you can publish it to the iBookstore or iTunes U or share it with anyone with an iPad.