Reflections on a month of Creative Exploration

I’ve been participating in a Creative Exploration (CE) with a group of 6 people for the past month. We’ve been thinking and talking about themes of Critical and Creative Thinking, and exploring how a course might be developed focused on these themes. Below are headings for the major categories I’ve been thinking about.

Studio

I’ve had a lot of fun thinking about the teaching of creative thinking. I’ve been inspired by one of the participants’ use of “studio” as a metaphor for creative space, safe space, a lab, workshop, group, or team. Thinking about an educational endeavor through this lens is innovative; it turns the classroom into a place to experiment and try new things rather than a depository of knowledge for the teacher to impart to the students. This is especially relevant for adult and graduate students who already bring knowledge and insights to the educational process. Thinking of “school” as “studio” makes space for the instructor to be someone who, as my doctoral advisor Leonard Sweet always said, “organizes learning.”

The studio also becomes a sacred space. The word holy means “set apart for a specific purpose/use.” A program designed around students coming to a studio (whether actual or virtual I would argue) that has been specifically identified as a location to learn, grow and express creativity becomes “holy” in the set apart aspect. This can have deep meaning for students.

Finally, this metaphor of studio very much reminds me of my personal metaphor of a “ropewalk,” the long alleys in a industrial-era town where rope was made by taking various strands of hemp and braiding them together to create a strong rope.

Transformative Experiences

As this group has shared a bit of our stories around the Google Hangout space, one piece that many of us have in common is a transformative experience that has involved travel to another country or culture. For me, I have been shaped and profoundly changed by travel to war-torn countries, places of extreme poverty, as well as countries where I didn’t speak the language. Sometimes one location encompassed all three.

Upon further reflection, it was these trips and locations that provided clarity for a sense of vocation and call. Away from the familiar gave space for God to speak and for my heart to be open to new possibilities.

In an innovative educational setting, creating spaces and experiences for students to move outside of comfort zones and visit another culture would be beneficial.

Creative Thinking

This past week I reflected on how one becomes “creative.” In a class I’m teaching, we discussed the formation of creative ideas. The list the class came up with basically fell in to two categories: under pressure, and in times of quiet and space.

As I thought about facilitating a course that focuses on creativity, I wondered how in this current technological climate one might find the appropriate space to allow creativity to find it’s voice. Coupled with this I also started thinking about the spiritual practice of “attending” or listening. How does an academic program prescribe times of silence and solitude in order to foster critical and creative thinking? With the lure of 24/7 connections will students unplug?

I’m part of another G+ community that has been discussing the role of meditative science and there are interesting conversations happening around the ideas of meditation and focused brain activity.

Challenge: Moving

The challenge from my colleagues in the CE was to think of a way for a group to move from the studio out into the world or to move from contemplation to action.

I think this movement forward happens through the power of community. Creating cohorts in higher education, especially cohorts where the students are concerned about the learning of their peers is one way to create but also to move people outside the studio.

This is a challenge in an individualistic, research-based PhD program, but if implemented would make this program stand out in a creative way.

Ideas for implementation could include: 1) having an online component to every course where the students would be encouraged to share research and ideas, sort of a G+ community for feedback and conversation around their studies. Include a place for students to share personal “how’s life” type events so the group can cry or celebrate with the student. Create community in the Studio.

2) Involve fellow students by providing each other with feedback and evaluation on research. Invite collaboration on student projects and create a sense of team.

In March 2013, I created a Prezi and shared it with my administration for a theological MA program that I am proposing at Tabor College. I attach the link here knowing that it needs adjustment and I need to make changes to represent some of what I’ve mentioned above, but it’s a visual representation of what I’m thinking could be done to implement some of these concepts.

Bigger on the Inside...

“It’s bigger on the inside than on the outside.” This is a now iconic line spoken by numerous characters on many episodes of Dr. Who when they first encounter the inside of the Tardis- a police phone box that serves as the Dr.’s time machine/ship. Recently, I could relate to that sentiment as I participated in my first Coursera MOOC through the University of Edinburgh, what looked small on the outside suddenly opened up into something beyond my imagination.

Less than a year ago I had never heard of a Massive Open Online Course or MOOC. I knew about innovative delivery systems, I did my DMin through a hybrid/online format and I found it perfect for me at that time. I enjoyed working from home, at whatever time I wanted; but with the structure of weekly assignments and readings to keep me on track. Our major professor was somewhat engaged with us as students, we interacted with him weekly for an hour; however the majority of my learning came from interacting with the course materials and with the twenty other students in my doctoral cohort. It was these peers who taught me as much or more than the instructor. I learned later that the course was designed in a constructivist educational philosophy. As our major professor used to say, his role was to “organize learning.”

Last September I was reading Fast Company magazine and came across this article about Coursera, one of the top three platforms for MOOC’s (Udacity and EdX being the other two).  I had just accepted a new job at Tabor College’s Wichita campus to design an innovative online MA program and I thought it might be useful research to take a MOOC to gain firsthand experience. I signed up with Coursera and looked around at the course offerings to find a class that might be useful.

I found the course E-learning and Digital Culture (EDC) from the University of Edinburgh and signed up. I was intrigued by the title and the content. I thought this could be a course that would assist me as I sought to learn more about E-learning in my own new context. The description explained the learning goals for the course, “Those goals might include: gaining new perspectives on e-learning; experiencing a MOOC; networking with some of the fascinating people from all over the world who are signed up; experimenting with digital and visual ways of representing academic knowledge; and exploring the connections between education, learning and digital cultures.” 

About two months before the course began I received an email from the EDCMOOC team welcoming and inviting me to join a variety of social media tools since much of the course would be conducted on these platforms. I already had a blog, Facebook and Google+ accounts (although I never touched G+), so I signed up for Twitter and began exploring that new platform.

In mid December I discovered a student-run Facebook group who had been active for over a month. I joined and began to make connections with some of the thousands of students who were to make up EDCMOOC. The Facebook group created connections as well as formed groups to encourage and read each other’s blogs. Many students began posting on their blogs about their pre-course learning and linking that to FB. In January, weeks before the course even started students were generating so much original content it as difficult to keep up with all the posts.

By the time the course began there were over 43,000 students enrolled. It was a five-week course set up around two major themes: weeks 1-2) Utopian/Distopian views of the future; weeks 3-4) What does it mean to be Human? The fifth week was focused on preparing and posting a digital artifact (more on that later).

The main form of content provision was through a “film festival” and readings. The films were chosen to address the theme for the week and were linked from the course website from YouTube or Vimeo. The readings were academic articles that were freely available on the web. The instructors worked hard to provide content that all could access, not only those with access to academic libraries. The level of the articles according to one of the professors, was first-year undergrad.

In many ways, the content provided by the instructors created a jumping off point for the students to discuss and explore a wide variety of issues connected to the themes. Students were encouraged, but not assessed, to interact on the weekly themes through a variety of methods, twitter, blogging, discussion threads on FB and G+, as well as interaction on the Coursera course site. One area for improvement are the forums on the Coursera site. They were difficult to navigate and find relevant posts, it soon became apparent to many of the students that posting there was a waste of time and many navigated to other social media formats for meaningful interaction. During these first couple of weeks I experienced what many of my fellow students did as well- extreme overwhelming feelings as it became impossible to keep up with the content generated by 43,000 individuals. Because the course was global, students were creating and curating information around the clock, there was always something new to read or watch. It appeared that many students dropped in the first couple weeks due to the overwhelming feelings created by the flood of student-generated content.

It was during this time, around week three that I discovered Felicia Sullivan’s VoiceThread.  VoiceThread is an online discussion forum that records asynchronous discussion in a verbal, rather than written form. I had observed VoiceThread in Moodle training but had only seen a sample “thread,” I hadn’t been able to participate. Since one of my learning goals for the MOOC was to find new tools and technologies, I jumped into the VoiceThread and discovered a small group community that provided a personal and human touch to the ‘noise’ of the course. I was able to make connections with a small group that was helpful and encouraging through the rest of the course.  

The personal benefits of the EDCMOOC were:

I was able to continue developing my Personal Learning Network (PLN). I also realized that I had people in a PLN who weren’t being tapped. I have since reached out to some in my DMin cohort for ideas and advice.

I was able to learn about a wide variety of e-learning tools through my peers. In addition, the creation of a digital artifact, which was our final assessment, gave me permission and space to try out a number of tools, which I will use and promote in future classroom settings. I was also reinvigorated to discover the academic potential of social media like G+ and Twitter and plan on continuing to use these tools in the future.

I appreciated the global nature of the course and the interactions with other educators from around the world. I was energized by the cross-pollenization that occurred. I was also impressed by the high level of collaboration and cooperation I observed and experienced during EDCMOOC. People were willing to help and offer feedback in many ways.

I learned the difference between cMOOC’s and xMOOC’s- the first “constructivist” in philosophy and presentation and the second more traditional format with lectures and quizzes.

I can see MOOC’s serving in a wide variety of ways in the future. Some scholars and politicians are saying it’s the end of higher education, others say it’s a new tool that can be used to flatten education and make it more accessible to a global world. I lean to the latter. I think MOOC’s can supplement existing courses, provide professional development and provide content for students working independently, or along with a local faculty member.

Some are afraid that big business will take over Higher Education. Others are concerned that MOOC’s will cheapen degrees. This debate will continue, for now I think they can provide an excellent supplement to existing programs and personal networking.

Because MOOC’s are global, they are bigger on the inside…

Reflections on high school football

I have spent a career working with High School students in a variety of capacities: teacher, youth pastor, camp director- and now as a parent.

For the past couple weeks I have been following the story from Stubenville, Ohio on the two young men who have been convicted of raping a 16 year-old girl. The news article I read talked about the arrogance that was displayed by the boys and their friends. According to the article, they felt an entitlement to this kind of behavior because they were football players.  News story

This following content isn't a direct response to this story, but something that I wrote a couple years ago  when I observed the pressure society placed on these young men.

Fall is here and with it comes one of America’s favorite pastimes, football. For those of us who work with high school students, this one sport tends to dominate all others.

Last year, while attending a high school football game at my alma mater, an interesting thought struck me. The entire community, young and old was gathered on a cold October night to watch a group of 16-18 year olds play football. The team from my old high school was pretty good and was beating the visiting school quite easily. What was interesting wasn’t what I watched, but the way people talked about the local team members. I heard comments like, “He’s a real player,” “#18 is the best we’ve had in years,” “we’re all counting on #32 to bring us a championship,” and so on. I was struck by the fact that from the comments around me, the hopes and dreams for the entire community were balanced precariously on the shoulders of a group of boys barely old enough to shave.

I could imagine the next morning when the running back, the star of this particular team, walked into the local Starbucks and had complete strangers come up and congratulate him on the game, give him compliments and encouragement, and maybe even tips for the next week. How does this make him feel? More important, is he cognitively and emotionally ready to handle this kind of recognition?

I’m not against young people being encouraged for a job well done. In fact I believe that one thing young people need more of is encouragement. What I do have questions about is the level with which this young person is esteemed in the community and what will happen to him when he graduates.

For many, these high school years will be the best time of their lives; for others, it will be the worst. Don’t believe me? Why are there so many films made about adults returning to high school to change a significant event? I read that when Henry Kissinger was asked what his greatest public moment was he replied, “Attending my high school reunion and showing them that I made something of myself.”

Ten years from now, the allure of returning to “the glory days” could be strong for this running back in Starbucks who may not ever receive the kind of attention he is receiving now. How will he cope when the reality of life is different from the surreal world of celebrity high school athletics? What has my local town trained him to expect from life?

As a person with a career in youth work, I’m concerned with the pressures we place on youth to grow up too fast too soon. At the same time, I’m a strong advocate for leadership development in adolescents. How can we walk the fine line between these two realities? Instead of setting up a dichotomy, can we see this as a “both/and” situation?

First, I think youth workers and teachers should be the first to raise their voices to call into question the pressures and expectations placed on today’s young person. One way to provide assistance for young people trying to navigate through these difficult times of adolescence is having in his or her life a blend of support and challenge. Too much challenge without support and the young person might be pushed so far they just give up. In reality, too much support without any challenge is probably not possible in this life.

Second, I would encourage that the school, teachers, parents, and the church to seek to help #32, my community’s running back, to see his success in the wider scope of leadership development. Maybe a coach can spend extra time with those students who are both the appointed and natural team leaders, teaching them leadership principles that are applicable on and off the playing field. Alternatively, this could be a place where a youth pastor could be of assistance providing a “leadership development cohort” at a local school.

Whatever we do, I encourage us to find ways to work together. We owe it to #32 to help him navigate this time of fame so that he is grounded in the reality of the future. 

Massive brainpower in a MOOC

During conversation with a friend at lunch the other day he remarked, “I’m sorry I can’t remember, I’ve lost too many brain cells.” He was bemoaning the fact that his mind was not as sharp as he would have liked.

What would we give for more brainpower? How nice to have minds like Einstein or daVinci. “If I could only be smarter,” we tell ourselves, “ I would accomplish….”

At times I’ve wished for more brainpower. I have a lot of education and an advanced degree, but still feel inadequate in thinking sometimes.

These underlying wishes were unexpectedly met through my recent participation in my first MOOC; and reinforced through a TED talk I came across.

First the TED talk.

Clay Shirky is a writer and teacher on the social and economic impact of Internet technologies. He has a presentation on the TED.com site entitled How Cognitive Surplus will Change the World.

In this short talk (If you’d rather read it, there is a button on the bottom right for a transcript) Shirky talks about Ushahidi – a Swahili word which means “testimony.” Ushahidi is a collaborative, open source way to create networks using social media. It was used during the Kenyan riots in 2008 and the Hatian earthquake in 2010 to help people find family and loved ones.

Ushahidi began as a generous experiment in global collaboration and Shirky points out that working together is an important part of what makes us human. People have a need to move from consuming to producing; and the web and other electronic media have made it easier to produce beneficial and ‘just for fun’ content on a global scale. Shirky says that people like to create and want to share- whether that sharing is something as significant like Ushahidi, or something for a laugh like LOL Cats.

This brings me back to my experience in EDCMOOC. I experienced the benefit of cognitive surplus on a global scale. I found “fraingers,” a term coined by Ary Aranguiz (combining “friend” and “stranger”), who became a learning community for me. During this course students shared digital resources, e-learning tools, and their own web-based creations with me. I found Shirky’s thesis to be true: people like to create and want to share.

My brain didn’t physically grow new cells during this course, but it did grow on an exponential scale through the generous collaboration and sharing of my classmates. I now have access to digital resources I didn’t know existed two months ago. I have learned about new technologies, and I have discovered fraingers from around the world who are willing to share their cognitive surplus; and when that sharing happens, the amount of communal “brain cells” is astounding.

Cognitive surplus is changing the world.