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!