Conclusion

Admittedly at the start of this course and experience I was very wary and skeptical of what I had signed up for. Unsure of what innovation was and how it would be useful to me as a teacher back in Northern Ireland. However as the weeks progressed and my understanding and knowledge about innovation grew I began to see the potential and benefits it had for me both as a student and as a teacher. I also really liked how the course was fun, practical and interactive as I believe this is an important element of learning!

Throughout the process I have actively participated in class and discussions and got stuck into every one of the projects. I never missed a day of class and was always striving to work well within every group I was placed in.

I developed so many skills through this process such as communication, empathy, organisation and understanding others's points of view and most importantly creativity! Alongside this I learned many lessons such as creative confidence can be developed (I am living proof of this!), failing shouldn't be seen as failure, it is just part of the learning process, that deadlines are good and that sometimes its better to just get stuck into the doing rather than focusing too much on the thinking and always have in mind your goals so you know why and what you want to achieve and this will help you measure success!

Likewise, I can see the change in myself as I wrote in my first blog entry that I wanted to become more creative and learn different creative methods. Reflecting on this I can certianly see that I have in fact became more creative as I look at the work and ideas I have produced. Likewise I have learned more creative teaching methods both from class and from my own personal research in this area! So it is clear
 I was able to achieve the personal goals I set for myself!


Within every project I strived to do my best. Whilst in schools I interacted well with pupils, getting on board with them and their level (even speaking a little danish to them!)

In the first project I was in the group who came up with the innovative idea to make a project where children themselves could be innovative based around the idea of hygiene and cleanliness. We complied a detailed and structured booklet for teachers of how to implement such a project. Our project was real life, easily implemented and could be used straight away and feedback from teachers and students alike were encouraged and
motivated with our idea and what we produced.


In the second project we adapted our first idea in order to them teach children to be innovative! We interacted well with the children and even got involved and into our theme by coming dressed as scientists in white lab coats to add to the authenticity! It was a fun and interactive day and we wanted to show this to the children we worked with. It was very successful in that the children responded well to us and got actively invovled.

Finally, in the last project I was in the Home group where we had to share innovation with our home university. This was the part which I really enjoyed most and the effort I put into it was very rewarding as we successfully made a handbook, posters, 2 videos and got actual feedback from our university. I am excited that Nicolai also wanted a copy of our work to take and use for the future!







Overall, I  enjoyed the process and I hope that my interaction with the children, involvement  in class, quality of produce of the group projects and blog entries and additional ideas and inspiration I found and added reflects this!

week 11

This week in innovation lab marked our final project! Personally, this was the one I was most excited about as I was looking forward to working on an issue of sharing innovation to my home university as I believed it could have lots of potential there as this was something completely new and never been introduced in our University before.

Having met up as a group the previous week outside of class we had a good understanding of what we needed to do during our open lab day as we had decided on a basic framework for our ideas and had an organised list of things we needed to do on the open lab day. This organisation stood us in good stead for the open lab as we knew exactly what we had to do and how we were going to do it.

On the day of open lab we divided into two separate working groups. Hannah and Hollie were in charge of typing up and formatting the booklet which we had composed collectively as a group prior to this and were also in charge of composing a promotional poster which would be placed around our universities displaying information regarding the times and what the "introduction to innovation" day which we had organised was about. Whilst making our booklet we realised the importance of making it flexible and adaptable for its use both in Spain and Northern Ireland but also for its potential use in other universities across Europe. We decided to compose a basic outline so that the day would have a framework to follow but we also wanted to leave it open enough so that the people running the day would be able to adapt and chose what they felt would best work in their environment. We structured it using the 4 step model that focuses on Feel, Imagine, Do, Share as well as including a variety of ice-breaker games, brain breaks, and practical activities that could be used.

Poster we composed

Booklet we composed

However before we split into our groups we decided to come up with a list of goals to ensure that our work would match the outcomes that we wanted for the day. And as teachers goals are very important as they allow you to measure the amount of success and see if you accomplish what you set out to do. Likewise because I am always eager to get stuck in I often miss out this step which is vital to ensure that the activities and events you plan have purpose and relevance to your goals. Our goals included for our program day therefore included:

• Students and Lecturers are motivated to learn about innovation and their views are challenged
• Students and Lecturers form an opinion/idea of what innovation is 
• Student and Lecturers are actively involved in the planning of an event 
• Students voluntarily sign up for degree enhancement  course on teaching innovation 
• Students and Lecturers realise the importance of innovation in teaching 

As we waned to use a range of promotional resources such as videos, a stand in the corridor of our university and posters to promote our event we decided it was also necessary to set out goals for our promotion too. These goals were to:

• encourage people to sign up
• inform with details and outline of the day
• draw attention and make the event appealing

Andrea, Emily and I worked on making and editing the promo video and video for the introduction to our "introduction to innovation" day. Together we got people from our class to help us make the video which we filmed on an iPad and edited on iMovie. This first film we made consisted of asking people their views on what innovation is, their favourite part of the innovation process and getting them to be innovative in their response to the question 'This is not a spoon, what is it?'. We wanted to get real life responses to innovation and their favourite part as we thought this would be a useful way to introduce the concept of innovation at the start of our program. The alternative uses for a spoon idea was also a way of getting them to be innovative and creative. You can check out our video below!

Secondly, we made a short, promotional video which we wanted to be emailed to students and lecturers the week before to encourage them to come to our innovation taster day. Within the video we included  practical information such as dates and times as well as what the day would involve. We wanted to use humour as a selling technique as we realised that this would be a good way of showing students how fun and interesting the day would be and how it wouldn't be like normal lessons. Likewise we wanted to use a a video as a promotional tool as we realised that students will respond better to technology than a paper copy of flyer or leaflet. Here is our promotional video you can have a look at:

Prezi Presentation

After our whole class was finished we got to share our projects and feedback from the day. As a group we decided to make a Prezi to visually highlight what our project was about and our ideas this included a run down of our case, goals, things to consider when planning for the day, a lay out of the day itself, promotion and support/ resistance we may come across. It was here that we showed our videos and let the rest of the class have an opportunity to look at our posters and booklets which we made. We also shared with them the feedback we had received from lecturers from our university who had commented: "wonderful idea and the concept of learning about, then teaching innovation is just the ind f more active and hands on approach that we need at Stranmillis". This was very encouraging to see that there was a few lecturers interested in this concept and trying to introduce innovation in our home university and the potential for change that could happen in our university when we return home! Likewise our Student's Union President commented that "A Students experience must be shrouded in vibrancy and opportunity, schemes and plans which seek to introduce innovation to Stranmillis can only benefit this process."
We also received feedback from the Spanish University which stated that "the project on innovation would be highly interesting for our university". This was also very encouraging as although Mondragon University was already very invovled with innovation it was still very keen to see the implementation of a new project and saw the potential of it in their university. Thus, we had created a project which would have potential for both universities. Support from Universities is key in order to successfully implement such projects.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project and I feel that as a team we worked very effectively and efficently coming up with innovative ideas for sharing and promoting the concept of innovation in our home university of Stranmillis!

Nicolai's brother then came to give a talk on social innovation. I found this very interesting as it broadened my perspective on how innovation can be used not only in education and business world but also how it can be used in social contexts too.

The final thing we did was an evaluation on the whole course using the delphi method. This actively involved everyone in the class as we all had to write 3 things we liked about the course and 3 things we didn't like about the course. We then rotated our sheets and everyone was able to grade each others s statements on a scale of 1-3, 1 being agree, 3 being disagree. I liked this method of evaluating as I had never used it before, I liked how it was anonymous but required you to give fair and honest responses. I definitely see the potential for using an adaptation of this the method in schools as a form of peer assessment for each others work or feedback on work or project they did in class.

week 10

As we start to work on the final project of this innovation module I cannot believe how far I have come and how much I have learned about innovation, having began this module quite skeptical about what I would actually gain and develop from it. However, as I have went through the different stages and projects, my knowledge and understanding of what innovation is and the skills I have developed from this such as communication, creativity and teamwork have definitely been enhanced and I believe that the module has benefited me both personally and professionally.

Our lesson this week began with our tutor dividing us up into groups according to birthday months. This was a good strategy to use as it was a fair way of dividing up the class and allowed people from different countries to work together and this is definitely something I will use at home as one of the ways of dividing children into groups as it is quick and easy and allows children of different friendship groups and abilities to work together.

Our task was to make the tallest structure and place a marshmallow on top using a variety of different materials such as string, masking tape and spaghetti etc. It allowed us to be innovative and think of ways we could creatively make the tallest structure and also helped to develop our teamwork as we had to listen and communicate to each other our different ideas as to how we thought it would be best to go about the task. I think it was a good introduction to the lesson as it was a fun, engaging activity related to innovation and using skills we have been developing so far. As teachers, I think it is good to have warm up activities like these as it breaks children into the lesson encouraging involvement and engagement from the inset. However for warm up activities like these to be most beneficial I believe they should link naturally to the following work so that children can see the progression as they move from the warm up activity into the lesson.

Our winning structure!

Materials for the marshmallow challenge

Our tutor then explained the final part of the project which was to share knowledge and ideas about innovation. We were allowed to decide which project we would like to work on and I chose to work on the 'home group' which involved sharing knowledge about innovation at our home university. I really wanted to be involved in this group as currently in my home university there is nothing about innovation and I could see the potential for something there and I thought this would be a good chance to take everything which I have learned about innovation so far and apply it back home. I also felt this would be the best area for me as I could use my experiences and in depth knowledge about the consumers at my home university and use this to provide service possible.

As a group we started brainstorming ideas of how we might share innovation at our home university and came up during this with a variety of ideas such as having an intensive week, an extra course, Guest lecturers like Richard Branson or Bill Gates, competitions, the use of videos and online learning. We also looked at things that could go wrong, such as space, materials, time, permission and money etc. However, this did make us aware of the negatives and also helped prepare us for practical things we may come across when hosting our innovation session at our university, therefore we could look into getting grants from our university to host the day session and get materials etc.

Planning our initial ideas

We then decided to boil down our ideas and decided to have a one day session on innovation with the potential for people to sign up for an extra course on how to teach innovation in schools if they liked what they learned about innovation during the day. We choose this format as we realised there would be a challenge to share information both widely and deeply and this would be something that would satisfy both parts. We also decided we wanted the day to be a hands on, practical day as we wanted people actively involved as they learned about innovation as this is how we ourselves felt we most enjoyed and gained the most knowledge and understanding from. We also decided that we didn't just want our session for students but in fact also for lecturers as I thought that having lecturers at our session could increase and maximise the potential of having a module implemented within the university itself dedicated to teaching about innovation and this would have greater power if lecturers understood and saw the potential behind it. Indeed, our ideas hope to fulfil the aims and objectives of this part of the project.

Although, at this stage we only have initial ideas I am really looking forward to the next class where we get to make our framework and any resources we need to implement this within our home university and I hope to be as creative and innovative as possible when planning for this. I am also excited and enthusiastic of the potential of our tutor using our framework and structure of teaching innovation when he goes out to different universities as it gives this more meaning to our work as it could actually used in the future, so watch this space! 

week 9

This week we had the opportunity to go back to Stengardskolen to complete our teaching innovation lesson. This was a part of the program I had been most looking forward to and felt would be of much benefit to me as a future teacher myself as I was going to be able to adapt and use the model we had previously been working with in class and use it to teach children to be innovative themselves. This opportunity would therefore allow me to gain experience of teaching this concept to children should I want to use it back in my home country.

Feel Phase- collecting evidence from toilets!

My group was assigned a year 9 class consisting of around 12 pupils and initially I had fears about this as I am training to be a primary teacher at home to teach children up to the age of 11 and teaching 16 year olds is not something I am overaly confident or used to teaching. However with my group by my side I gained the boost in confidence that I needed and dividing up the lesson between the four of us meant that we could rotate roles throughout. Indeed, it was nice to see how the format and ideas we had planned for in our teaching plan were workable enough that we could use but also flexible enough that we could extend and adapt such as during the 'do' phase when they were making their prototypes. Indeed, this shows not only our professional abilities as teachers but also our ability to be innovative and decisive to know when and where to extend and adapt parts of the lesson you had planned.

Imagine phase- recording ideas

My best moment in the day was during the 'imagine' phase of the 4 step design thinking model which we had included in our innovation lesson. It was my favourite because the children we were working with were most engaged during this part of the lesson and you could see from their engagement and concentration that they were enthusiastic and wanted to get involved. As well as this I found it to be the best moment because the productivity from the children at this stage was very successful. Children quickly latched onto the idea of thinking outside the box by imagining how different characters and celebrities would think of solutions to the problem. The fast paced nature encouraged children to think of the first thing that sprang to their minds and helped keep their ideas flowing. indeed it proved very beneficial to have chosen characters that the children themselves could relate to as this meant that the children could identify with these characters easier and help them come up with solutions.

Sorting ideas using grid framework

Verbal feedback from the lesson discovered that the children found this part of the lesson most enjoyable and they appreciated the format of how we introduced and guided them through the imagine phase using characters that they could relate to. Indeed, it was clear to see not only from their verbal feedback that they enjoyed the lesson but also from their invovlement both individually and working working within their groups. As well as this children were immediately engaged and curious when we arrived together in our science lab coats! (A great addition which added to our lesson and concept and helped add more authentic feel.) Involvement was also visible in their engagement with us group members when we were interacting with them and asking questions as well as being visible when they were working together as groups making their prototypes.


Deadlines worked very well as it helped us to time and forced the children to work well under time constraints, encouraging maximum and continual input from the children. One thing I would change if we were to do this innovation lesson next time with children would be to check prior to coming whether or not the class had anything else on that day because whilst we were teaching throughout the lesson there were children constantly coming and going due to tests being on and this caused some minor disruptions to the general flow of the lesson as those who came and left early couldn't finish what they started and those who left before and came during the middle of the process didn't have a firm understanding and grasp of what was going on and found it harder to integrate themselves into the process with the other children. However, I know that this was something out of our groups control and we worked with the children ensuring a smooth a transition as possible.

Presenting prototyes

In the previous week my group had also decided it might be a good idea to do an experiment by dividing the pupils into a male, female and mixed group to see if this had any impact on how involved they were or the prototypes they came up with. Unfortunately in the class we were assigned we did not have enough boys to make a mixed group which resulted in having 1 male group and 2 female groups. However, it was interesting to obverse the involvement and interaction between the males and females. At the start the males were less focused on the task than the girls and often used humour and were quite talkative, however this changed when as the continued through the process and the remained involved and engaged at a similar level to the girls who remained constant throughout. Regarding the prototypes it was interesting to note that a male and female group came up with a similar prototype or designing and putting up posters in the school to promote and encourage hygiene. However the surprising thing was that the male group focused on punishment and using sanctions in their posters if the other pupils didn't keep the toilets clean whilst the females focused on rewards and bribes pupils could get if they kept the toilets clean. An interesting insight into the minds of boys and girls!

Discussing and giving feedback

Overall, I believe the lesson was very successful as ultimately the children achieved the success criteria which my group had devised in the previous week which was to realise the importance of hygiene, come up with an innovative idea of how to solve the problem of hygiene, communicate with each other and work together in groups.  Ultimately, the children were innovative in their solutions they came up with and some groups even were able to come up with such innovative and creative ideas that we ourselves hadn't even thought of when we were doing it!

Great Interaction with the kids!

Getting into our theme!

week 8

Having spent the last number of weeks gaining an understanding of innovation and design thinking through completing readings as well as gaining first hand experience through participating in the process myself it was finally time to put everything I had learnt into practice! This time, instead of the tutors facilitating and guiding us through the process it would be my turn to teach the children from Stengardskolen (the school we had been previously working with) how to be innovative.

Admittedly, I was daunted at the thought of this prospect as I had only just come through the process myself however because we are working in groups I feel like I can acquire the extra confidence needed and feel supported by the rest of my group as I take the lead. Indeed, this is one of the many positive aspects and benefits of this module as you can work collectively to source and build upon each others ideas and you never feel that you are on your own. This is a skill I feel I am developing greatly during this process and this skill will be needed throughout my teaching career back in Northern Ireland as I will have to work collaboratively with other teachers to plan work and teaching materials, similar to what I have witnessed whilst being out in schools in Denmark as well as working with their classroom assistants (pedagogues) and parents.

Throughout this innovation process my group and I have worked hard on trying to solve the problem innovatively which we identified in the school. Having always been aware that we would have to complete this next stage of turning round and teaching the children to be innovative themselves we worked with this in mind during the first stage of this program, trying to innovatively solve the problem identified but could also accommodate an environment for children to be innovative themselves. This proved to be very worthwhile and beneficial for my group as we realised that due to time restrictions in this program we would only have one class to plan for our innovative teaching episode!

Design for Change a 4 step process

Before any group work was done however our tutor introduced us to the design for change model which encourages children to identify issues which bother them and guides children through a  four-step process which allows them to take an active role in imagining and creating change for the better. 

Until now, I had never heard of this movement before however I was inspired by how powerfully it could be used. I defintely feel like this is something I could potentially use back in Northern Ireland as we teach through topics and as a teacher I could use the design for change model within my topic such as Africa to feel empathy towards people in 3rd world countries and thus do something about it and they could come up with innovative ideas themselves and share it with others. Indeed, I feel that because the 4 simple steps it is divided into it can therefore be used and adapted for a variety of age groups through the primary school system in Northern Ireland.

As a group we decided to make a flexible teaching plan due to the fact that we did not know what time we would have or the number or age of the children we would be working with. flexible teaching plans are good as they encourage teachers to adapt and go with the flow of how the children are learning and interacting. We decided to avail of many of the concepts and ideas that we had used ourselves when going through the innovation process. Although we did not use every single one, we decided to only use the ones we felt were the most beneficial and useful for the children and the ones that we also enjoyed participating in ourselves. As a group we decided on a time schedule for each of our activities during the day as we realised from experience ourselves that deadlines are needed to ensure that children remain focused and keep moving forward with their work and some of the best ideas are imagined and developed under pressure within deadlines.You can view our flexible teaching plan below which gives a rough idea of how we imagine our teaching episode to pan out!

Our flexible teaching plan

As you can also see from our plan we divided up the different roles within our group depending on our skills and abilities. We also made a list of resources we would need to complete our teaching episode which we emailed in advance to our tutor to ensure that we would be prepared for the day. As well as this we identified 'what ifs' which were a list of things we would do if something did not go to plan. This ensured that we would be prepared for the worst case scenario, a good back up plan for when you are a teacher! As you can see we also have chose to divide our children into unusual groupings, having a male, female and mixed group of children. We specifically chose to do this as we wanted to do an experiment to satisfy our curiosity and see for ourselves if there would be any variation in the ideas and concepts the groups came up and how well they worked together. As teachers we are interested in how children work together and can hopefully use this knowledge back home in our own countries.

A list of our Characters, resources and success criteria

Overall, I excited about the prospect of teaching the children to be innovative. Although at times before this I had questioned why we ourselves were participating in the innovation process I now see that we needed to do to gain a better understanding and use this first hand experience and knowledge to teach the children. I am hopeful for what the children can achieve during this time frame as I know from experience what can be achieved yet I am nervous at the same time as we have such a limited time with them and because of the fact that we cannot speak danish to them I hope that nothing gets lost in translation and they will be able to understand us fully and actively participate in the class and won't get tired listening and speaking English for that period of time.

Week 7

Due to being on teaching practice for a week we did not have innovation lab class but instead had a week to prepare for our presentations we would be making to Stengaard Skole. Therefore we worked on filming and editing our video, putting together a handbook for teachers to use and worked on our presentation which we would deliver to the school. Having originally came up with the idea in another class we set about bringing our film to life and filmed and edited it on an iPad and edited it using moviemaker, we then uploaded it to Youtube so it could be easily accessed by the school for future use. You can see our finished product below!

Our handbook was compiled together from feedback our group received during the peer evaluation. We thought this was a good suggestion as we realised on reflection that it was necessary for teachers to have a suggested template and guidance to follow in order to visualise our concept but also to facilitate and implement in their classes. We worked very hard on this handbook making sure that it was simple, straightforward and easy to read but also included the main ideas and thoughts behind our concept. Below you will find some pictures of some of the pages we included in our handbook!

Images from our Handbook

Example of what we included in our Handbook

For a more detailed look at the handbook we produced please follow this link! http://innovationlabmathias.weebly.com/uploads/4/6/5/0/46506441/handbook_students_responsibility.docx

After this week it was time to begin phase 5 of the innovative design thinking process which involve the evolution, delivery and evaluation of our concepts. Originally we had thought we would be presenting our ideas to teacher however we were pleasantly surprised that some older and younger pupils would be coming to hear our presentation so as a group we had to quickly improvise our presentations to suit a younger audience. This clearly showed how well we worked together as a team because we were able to quickly think on our feet and adapt to the situation.

Feedback from the students was very positive which was very encouraging to hear as our concept was directed towards and involved students themselves. Many students commented on how they liked the idea of collaborating with the younger pupils in the school as this was something they had not done before in class. They also liked the idea of creating a campaign in whatever format they liked (we had chose to leave this up to the pupils specifically as we wanted to create an environment which encouraged the pupils to be innovative themselves!). Likewise, another common feedback was that and the competitive element behind it but that all groups would receive recognition for their campaigns and contributions through awards for the best teamwork or the most progress etc.  

After presenting to the pupils we also got the opportunity to present to teachers as well. Feedback from these presentations was also very positive and teachers commented on how much they liked that our concept specifically was a realistic concept and could be easily implemented and used in their school without needing extra money, resources or time. Likewise all teachers looked favourably at our handbook and saw it as an invaluable tool for implementing our concept in practice.

Overall, it was very rewarding to be able to deliver our innovative concepts to both the teachers and pupils after all the hours of planning and preparation we had put into it. It was also very encouraging to see how excited and positive they were about our concept and this shows that as a group we were successful in understanding our consumers and what they needed which goes to show that the information we had gathered during the discovery phase was very worthwhile and beneficial.

Once we had finished all our presentations and given our final presentation to our class we then evaluated our innovation concepts as a group using the Darsø model. We concluded that for this project we worked more with our knowledge, relations and concepts and less with our ignorance however this may be an area we could use more of in the future if we were to do a similar project to this again. Indeed it would be interesting to see what ideas would turn out if we used more ignorance!

Although this is the end of this part of the innovation process I am excited to start working on teaching children now to become innovative!

Week 6

This week we began the next phase, phase 4 which involved experimentation and prototype. This was the phase I was most looking forward to as it was the part of the process where I could get most involved in and our ideas which before now were only on paper now become tangible and real life. This process involved us moving from planning into action.

Our class Padlet of quotes

However before this began we started off using an online editing tool called 'Padlet'. This was a new document which I had never came across before but it proved to be very useful. Every person in the class was able to access the class padlet online on their individual devices and type and edit it and it would come up and be visible to everyone else. We used Padlet to write our favourite quotes from the readings we had done for this week. This was very beneficial as we could see everyone's different interpretations of the readings we had.

Writing good points about each other's ideas

Afterwards we returned back to our groups and got out our individual drawings of solutions we had made. Our tutor then asked us to stick up our drawings on a wall and write underneath on a separate page what was good about the idea. We then rotated and did this with everyone's drawings so we had a collective list of good things about each of our drawings. This was good as it helped us see the positive aspects in everyone's work and was very encouraging.





Once we had complete this we began to refine our solution to the problem. Our group having identified many positive aspects of our drawings decided to use of mixture of different aspects of everyone's work to form our solution. Our solution to the problem of hygiene in the pupil's bathroom was therefore to give pupils responsibility of their own hygiene by giving them control. This meant that we would encourage them to take control and responsibility of their own hygiene by introducing them to the importance of hygiene through a short practical science lesson and the encouraging the older students in groups to develop a campaign whether that be a video or posters to advertise the importance of washing their hands in the bathrooms. This would be turned into a competition and the winning group would then have their campaign use throughout the school.

After we had decided on our final idea we then used a system using Dr Edward De Bono's Six Thinking hats. This meant that everyone in the group had to put on a 'hat' and analyse the group's idea based on what hat they were wearing. For example, if you had a red hat you were encouraged to think and write down your immediate subjective reactions or if you were black you had to think and write down any risks or disadvantages. This was a very useful concept to use and helped us think about different aspects which we may not have considered without this.

Working through the model with our idea

Thinking Hats Model

 























Next we were given 40 minutes to make a prototype. After initially being shocked at how little time this was my group immediately got to work. We decided that we wanted to present our prototype in the form of a video as this would be most effective for portraying to the teachers our concept. We based it around a mad scientist and gave a practical example of how this could be used as a stimulus or teaching method to follow on work on a hygiene campaign to get children to wash their hands. We came up with a script, planned our presentation and filmed this all within the time limit. You can watch my groups video here!



Listening to each other's presentations and giving feedback

When all groups returned after 40 minutes it was time to make our presentations to the rest of the class. Each group gave their presentation whole the rest of us listened and recorded any likes, questions, ideas or. Once finished we stuck these post it notes in the appropriate part of the grid and moved on to do the same for all groups.

When everyone was finished we then got a chance to read post it notes for our group's presentation. We read through these and considered the points that had been raised and used this to refine and edit our presentation.



Next week we will be presenting our final prototypes to the school so as a group we will be meeting up to finish our presentation before this.

Week 5

This week in class we moved on to the next step of the design thinking process which was the ideation phase. Our tutor Lillian guided us through this process through a range of different activities and encouraging us to think from different points of views.

Firstly in groups we had to present our ideas to the rest the class. These were the ideas which we had previously came up with within our last session. One person from each group pitched their groups ideas and then the rest of our class collectively voted which of the ideas was their favourite. This voting system allowed each of the groups to get instant feedback from their ideas, gaging which was most/least popular and would prove very beneficial when it came to choosing an idea to prototype.

Afterwards, we got back into our groups and we got the opportunity to read each other’s blogs. As our blogs are part of our assessment and learning process where we reflect on what we have worked on in class and summarise readings and post other things we come across relating to innovation it was interesting to see other peoples interpretations and views.

As this class is a very practical, hands on class, our tutor decided to recharge our energy levels with a whole class brain break. Our tutor encouraged us to link arms with a partner and go outside and walk around discussing with each other what we would bring with us if we were going to the moon. After initially being a bit skeptical of this activity I did thoroughly enjoy the activity. Although this was a brain break activity it also formed a good introduction to the next part of the lesson. During our brain break our tutor had encouraged us to think of the most craziest and unrealistic ideas of things we could bring to the moon and our partner had to respond with encouragement and suggest other ideas. This helped prepare us for the next stage where we had to come up with seemingly wild ideas for our innovative solutions and teach us about appreciating others opinions even if you don’t agree.

Thinking of ideas in our group



Working on our ideas

When we got back inside we then were encouraged to write down any ideas to creatively and innovatively solve our ‘how might we’ problem. This could be as simple or as crazy as we wanted but we were encouraged to write as many as we could on post it notes. After this, to encourage us to think creatively, our tutor called certain famous people’s names, brands or adjectives like Barack Obama, McDonalds, smaller than a peanut or a homeless person. We then responded to this stimulus by thinking how our problem could be solved if Barack Obama was in charge or McDonalds were in charge. This was a fun activity and my group got really involved and began to think outside the box. It was freeing to know that none of our ideas
would be looked upon with judgement as we were all encouraging each other to think creatively. Afterwards we were then encouraged to take another walk outside in silence and then come back and write some more ideas individually. It was good to have this opportunity has the change in environment and scenery allowed for a catalyst of more ideas.

Organising our ideas into a grid

After this brainstorm of ideas we certainly had a lot! However the next part was to sort through these ideas. We were given a large A3 page which we split into a grid easy and difficult to implement at one side and would help many and few at another side. As a group we read out all the ideas that were on post it notes and then sorted them within the grid. This was very useful as it helped us to visually see what ideas would be the most workable and beneficial for many.








 As a group we then decided on focusing in our problem which we wanted to solve. This was formed from deciding on a problem which everyone in the group felt passionate about, wanted to change and also from votes of the whole class during the previous activity. Therefore our 'How might we' problem was that 'How Might We create a project for the students in order for them to become responsible.' We thought that this could take the form of a project of keeping the school clean/hygienic as from our visit to the school we noticed that this was a big problem. Alongside that we thought it would be exciting if the older students made some kind of campaign/project and represented that/taught it to the younger students. 

Pitching my ideas to my group

Finally, the last thing we had to do was for each person in the group to make a drawing of our favourite idea of how we could innovatively and creatively solve our 'How Might we'. We then had the opportunity to share our drawings and explain them to the rest of our group and it was encouraging and interesting to see how far we have come with this process and I am excited to see what my group is going to come up with.

Week 4

How can innovation be organised in processes?

As part of my innovation lab class as the name suggests it revolves around innovation. Having had no prior knowledge or expierence with innovation I have come to realise that Innovation is a step by step process and can be organised into processes. Each week we move through these different processes in a logical and structured format as we work on our innovative solutions to the problems we have come across and our tutors guide and facilitate us as we work through these innovation processes.

Space was clearly an issue in classrooms

Lounge area for older students

Possibility to maximise wide corridor space

This week we worked on the first two process of innovation. The first process was the discovery/ empathy phase. This involved us going to Stengaardsskolen School for a field visit. This school visit had been organised by our tutors. Firstly, we got the chance to have a general tour of the school and meet some people like the principal, the janitor and a teacher. Afterwards we split into our separate groups (which we have been working in the previous weeks) to gain a unique and detailed insight into the school. Our group gained a good insight into the school through observations and interviewing the janitor, teachers, department leader and pupils. We took notes during our observations and interviews so as not to forget any important information. Having already organised an interview schedule in the previous week it proved very useful as we could use and extend the questions that we already had to suit the interviewees and the context. Our observations took us throughout the school, both indoor and outdoor as we wanted to observe the environment collectively. We also took plenty of photographs for evidence and was another good method of recording information easily. Overall the discovery phase of innovation was very useful as it helped us get a unique and vital insight into the school, its problems and allowed for opportunities to interview the very users we would be trying to innovatively solve the problem for.

My group's interpretation

When we arrived back at University we regrouped and moved into the second process of innovation the interpretation/ define phase. Here we discussed with each other stories of what we had gained from our first process. While we listened to everyone's stories in our group we were given post-it notes and encouraged to jot down words or phrases that came to our minds when we listened to the stories. We then moved on to grouping these post-it notes into common themes and were encouraged not to group these notes by stories which you can see from the picture.

The next step in the innovation process was to define these insights into a concise expression of what we had learned from our discovery phase. It was helpful to write this out in the form of a 'POV' (Point of view) statement which makes an insight specific to a user. Some of my group's insights included "students need a place to relax in order to help them perform better" and "students need to have an incentive to run their free time responsibly" etc.


Finally we moved on to making these insights actionable which took the form of a 'How might we...' statement. One of our 'How Might We' statements were "How might we create an incentive that would help students become responsible with their free time". This will then form the beginnings of coming up with creative solutions to some of these problems.


Although in class this week we only went through two processes it is clear to see that there are many processes in innovation. Altogether there are five processes and the other processes include the ideation phase, the experimentation/ prototype and test phase and the evolution/ iterate/ delivery and evaluate phase. I am looking forward to becoming involved in each of these phases as we go along and developing my knowledge, understanding and skills regarding innovation.

Week 3

This week in class we started off with a warm up game where there were a series of cards on the ground. We had to choose a card we thought showed creativity and then go round the room talking to others and deciding why their cards were creative to them personally. I thought this was a very good activity as it encouraged myself and others to  Reflect about our personal views on creativity as well as sharing these ideas with others. Likewise when going around and interacting with others we had to search for creativity in many different pictures. It developed our communication skills as well as our listening skills too!



A selection of cards available which represented creativity



 My card a picture of graffiti and I felt this was a good expression

      of creativity.

       Karin holding a card which she felt represented creativity.

Afterwards we had a chance to watch this video by Sir Ken Robinson. I found this video very interesting and was able to note a few points I found from the video. Some of these included ideas about how do we educate children to take their place in the economies of the 21st century?, Why do we educate children by age groups and not ability?, the debate with ADHD (this included interesting viewpoints on medication and how in America ADHD numbers increase as you go east across the country and in France the country as minimal ADHD children.) The video also looked at standardised testing (is this fair to test children of different abilities against the same bar?) and the difference between divergent thinking and creativity and how schools usually limit divergent thinking but allowing children to think there is only one right answer.

We then got into groups to start our design thinking process. I was in a group with Sally, Mathi and Elme and from the outset we worked very effectively, each person listened to each others ideas and contributed to the discussion. Coming from different professional backgrounds and cultures provided a very interesting discussion where we brought our thoughts and ideas as to how we could solve the issue of space within the classroom.

We started off by individually thinking about our dream schools and what we would like included in as well as things we would have liked to been better and then discussed this as a group. We were able to note some similarities between our ideas despite some differences and came up with a range of ideas such as creating a better playground outside, optimising space in the classroom and creating multi- purpose apparatus etc.

Next we created a project plan, where we set out our end goals, success criteria and established constraints. Some of our end goals included giving one thing inside the classroom multiple functions, creating something beneficial to both child and teacher and design something that would accommodate a shared space. Some of the success criterion we discussed was if we were able to give something more than one purpose, getting feedback from children using coloured post it notes and getting verbal feedback from teacher from talking to him/her. Our constraints included our lack of Danish, money and time etc.

Our next step was that we selected our research participants, we decided that we wanted both male and female pupils of different personality types and ages as well as the teacher and the principal as we wanted to get research from our primary users.

Following this we built a questionnaire guide where we came up with questions to ask our research participants like what do you feel is missing in your classroom? what would you like to change? what is the biggest challenge you face in your classroom? where is there a space issue for you? etc.

We also decided at this point it would be a good idea to use creative interview techniques when asking questions to the children so as to make them feel more at ease and also use an audio recording of their answers so we could retain all the information they told us instead of hurrying to write everything down.

The next thing we did was build an observation guide where we listed things we wanted to see for example a classroom, an actual lesson, outside the school, corridors, shared spaces as well as things we wanted to do like take photographs, attend a class, record interviews etc.

Finally we came up with a brief this included: We want to find out how they use the classrooms and common shared spaces. We want to optimise the space they have so that it becomes multi- functional. We want talk to talk to a teacher, principal and pupils as they are our primary users.

Next week we will be going into the school to collect research and interview our participants. I am excited to get involved and gain a unique insight into our consumers and ways we can innovatively and creatively solve problems we come across!

    

Week 2

Today, we began by watching a video on YouTube called IDEO Shopping Cart Challenge. This was a very interesting video as it showed how professional innovators work on a challenge. There were many positive and intruging aspects of the video which I found such as the fact that they are a mixed group with very different backgrounds, they do careful research to understand their challenge even under time constraints, they focus on their topic and add to a growing common pool of knowledge, build prototypes to show their ideas and always see the good points of everyones work, they never criticise. Often this can be challenging to see the good points in people's work as it requires a shift of mindframe.

My Group's ideas on Innovation & Welfare

After Lilian's lecture we were divided into groups of 4 and we had to make a concept map about "Innovation and social welfare". I think making a concept map is a good idea as it helps you visually explore and record yours and your own ideas. From this it helped me answer two of the questions;

What is innovation in a welfare perspective?
Innovation can be used in a welfare perspective to improve the quality of life of others in many developing countries, deal with social and economic issues, solve problems and can bring about cultural change. This can be done through developing or improving healthcare, agriculture, education, business, technology, water, affordable housing and food supply, for example creating a water pump in a village in Uganda to provide clean drinking water for the community.

The western society must realise they have a social responsibility to help others but must be aware of the difference between helping people in relation to their wants and needs. People's needs should override their wants, however the media can easily blur the lines between these giving people a false impression of what they really need.

My group collecting ideas

With regard to design thinkers they should not be afraid to take risks as innovation in relation to social welfare can reap large profits, although the risk can be very great if you do not fully understand the people and context you are working on. Therefore it is important to gain information directly the consumers to understand the problems they face and how you can best help them but also be empathic to the people they are trying to help.



Indeed, there is a triad of things design thinkers need to take into account when using innovation within a welfare perspective, these include; desirability (with regard to a human perspective), viability (with regard to a business perspective) and feasibility (with regard to a technical perspective).

Overall, innovation within a welfare perspective can be very profitable which is why many design thinkers are switching to work in these contexts. Before this class, I thought that innovation would only be within the contexts of business or education but I realise that it can also be used within the welfare context to make meaningful and real differences to peoples lives and that is something which I find very inspiring and encouraing!

Week 1

The lesson began with an introduction of the course Innovation lab. Lilian presented the aims of the course, the layout, program and the assessments. We then we a few minutes to write our own goals. Overall, personally within this course I want to become more creative and innovative, developing my own creative confidence and discover more creative methods which I can use, apply and adapt back in my home country! I hope when I look back on my experience of this course I will be able to say that!

After this we were asked to meet a stranger and present your story of innovation. My 'stranger' was Bjarke from Denmark. I told him about an outdoor mathematics trail that I created for my pupils during mathematics week in my home country. Where children go around following clues to lot of places where they have to solve mathematical problems. Although I didn't realise this was innovative as I started to gain an understanding of what innovation was I started to become more aware of innovative methods I had used unaware to myself within my teaching and within my own life.

After this we got int groups of four. This was a good excerise as we were able to hear more peoples ideas and understandings of innovation than we had previously and for me who had no understanding or knowledge of the concept before it was very useful to hear others ideas so I could form a better understanding for myself. The next exercise was that we have to tell our story in a bigger group, choose one of the stories to tell to the rest of the class and find a definition about what innovation actually is. This was defintely more challenging when every person in the room was talking but it was a good way of sharing information and hearing others opinions. Following each of us telling our own stories we decided to share Carlos' idea of innovation with the rest of the class as we liked it the best and was something we had never heard of before. It was an innovative approach to conflict resolution where if two children were fighting they had to stand in either the mouth or ear corner. When you were in the mouth you were allowed to talk and when you were in the ear you had to listen, Which I think is an innovative way of facilitating and managing conflicts and arguments between two people and was a child friendly approach and something I defintely want to use myself in my classroom back home!

Alongside sharing our stories and hearing everyone elses in the class I came up with an understanding and definition of what innovation is. It is clear already that I am developing and learning from this process already!

What is your definition of innovation?
Innovation is a term which can have many different meanings and when listening to my classmates views on innovation it was clear that we all saw it as different things. Some saw it as teaching through or with technology or finding new or different purposes for something. However, in my opinion innovation is about using approaches to problem solving using a new or better approach that has previously been used. These approaches involve creativity and thinking outside the box as well as having a good understanding of what you are trying to solve.

How does your expierence with design thinking fit your ideas about innovation?
My expierence with the design thinking exercise really helped develop my understanding and awareness of innovation. I believe that my ideas matched what I had previously thought as through the exercise we had to creatively come up with ways to solve the problem that our partner had. However, we also had to have a sound understanding of what their problem was so we could do this effectively. We used a 5 step approach based on the model by Stanford University to creatively solve their problems in a logical and structured progression.

Next we participated in the gift giving experience. I was immediately intrigued by what this was as it was clear it was going to be an interactive and  hands on lesson, something which I am not very used to at my university at home. However the lesson was a bit confusing and very structured because we only had 60 minutes to create something by following the five steps of design thinking:

1) Empathize: develop a deep understanding of the challenge

2) Define: clearly articulate the problem you want to solve

3) Ideate: brainstorm potential solutions. Select and develop your solution

4) Prototype: design a prototype to test all or part of your solution

5) Test: engage in a continuous short cycle innovation process to continually improve your design.

Although I hate feeling pressured and under time constraints to do anything, yet alone get to know my partner, understand and figure out his story and identify his needs and then create and present my prototype for him I do realise not in retrospect that deadlines are necessary as they push you to work more quickly and efficiently and often you are most creative when you have a time limit on your work.

However, I did like the layout of the 5 design thinking steps. It was clear what was required in every stage and it was a logical approach to reach the end goal where we had to recreate a gift giving experience. Although at this stage I wouldn't necessarily call my self a creative person I can definitely feel that my confidence is improving slowly as I get stuck into this process so watch this space!