Innovation

            The fundamental underpinning today was innovation. This can be applied to all aspects of our lives, but today we chiefly applied it to solving problems in education. Today felt like a completely different program, and I loved the new feeling just as much as I enjoyed the old. Today was much faster paced, with ideas and language thrown at us pretty much continually, challenging us to stretch and adapt to new thoughts while trying to grasp the concept introduced mere minutes later, a kind of challenge that is one of my favourite parts of university. This was combined with extended time to create something new and use non-alphanumeric systems to brainstorm and innovate, both of which stretched me creatively as well. So it was an interesting day!

The method we learned was designed at the Stanford d-school and was predicated on the idea that if we put enough pressure and have very little expectations, people will create something. It may not necessarily be good but it will be something! We were led through a five-step process: empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test. I thought this process was really interesting, as it is taught as a linear process, but it does not necessarily need to be used as such. One of my favourite parts of the process was how it encouraged students to prototype their ideas and literally create a model. This model can be physically manipulated and improved, which many students need in order to discover the flaws. In partners we each prototyped our own improvement on the gift giving experience. The range and creativity of these inventions is incredible to see!

All of our prototypes!

Another benefit of this system is that the timing can be very flexible. You could give students days to discover an idea, or they could be timed and limited. By giving students a strict deadline (four or eight minutes), it could help keep the students on track and eliminate the urge to procrastinate, indeed some students also find that they do their best work under pressure (I know I do!). This also encourages students to lower their expectations – they have not had a month to think about the problem and its solutions using endless research, but they have only had four minutes.

What stuck with me at the end of the day was a video Lillian showed in preparation for our school visit on Monday. The video was narrated by Sir Ken Robinson, an educational innovator I greatly admire (check out his video on how school can kill creativity here). He spoke about how our education system is fundamentally broken, and how it needs to be radically re-thought and changed. I can not wait until Monday to see how a Danish educator has interpreted these ideas and is applying them to his school!