I am on a crusade to encourage people to talk about their own creativity and I have been thinking about the way my own creativity emerges through the circumstances of my life. Last week I wrote about how the coming together of three ideas led me create something new. It was particularly interesting to see how this new synthetic idea had grown through circumstances that were also new in my life - my participation in the #creativeHE mini-mooc. The same thing has happened to me this week during a visit to Barcelona to participate in the University of Catalonia's E-Learning Centre seminar on LIfelong learning ecologies, where Prof Albert Sanga and his team introduced me to their Eco4learn project. The project is using the idea of learning ecologies to understand the use of social media by primary school teachers in their professional development and knowledge updating. As I listened to the team's presentation I felt the emphasis being put on the technological dimensions of the ecology was focusing on the technological dimensions of the ecology and missing the person acting in their environment. There was an expectation on me to share my understandings and in any case I wanted to show the team how their model of an ecology might be broadened to encompass the teacher's involvement in their whole ecology of practice, learning and development. So I adapted one of my own powerpoint slides to represent two different professional development scenarios that teachers might adopt - one using the social web the other relying on approaches that did not exploit the affordance of the social web. I include the scenarios below.
I know that this is only a small act of everyday creativity (I make no special claims for it) combining two perspectives to create a more holistic third concept that has meaning in the particular context in which it is developed. But on reflection I am wondering whether the process of combining ideas and perspectives goes on all the time in the academic world, when we take ideas grown in one context and apply them to another to create a new perspective on a phenomenon. For me it was interesting to see that this process happened when I went from my everyday familiar existence into an entirely new social-cultural context which exposed me to the views of other researchers who were also interested in the concept of learning ecologies. Putting myself into this unfamiliar context forced me to combine my ideas with the ideas of the edulab research team. In the process of doing this I expanded my own understanding of the way in which affordance, relating to the use of technology, features in the ecological process of professional development.
Combining two or more ideas, particularly if they are ideas that are not obviously connected, seems to be a common basis for innovation in the business world. In the academic world some of the most dynamic and innovative fields of knowledge growth lie in the interdisciplinary domains where ideas, frameworks or methodologies developed in one discipline are applied in another to create a new perspective or insight. I make no special claims for creativity through my story, I am simply recognising that the changed circumstances of my life enabled this simple process of combining ideas to produce a new conceptual representation to emerge. It struck me that combining ideas from different sources is an act of co-creating new meaning even if only one person is doing the combining. By sharing the new combined idea with the people responsible for the other idea we hope that the co-created meaning will also be owned by the other contributors. But even if it is rejected the idea has still been brought into existence. Perhaps this is the fundamental way in which academic conceptual knowledge is incrementally developed (co-created) effectively connecting the learning ecologies of different researchers working in different contexts.
INVITATION TO SHARE A STORY
If you would like to share a story of when you have combined ideas to produce something new please visit our new 'Creative Life' project. We are aiming to produce the next issue of Creative Academic magazine from the people who contribute a story.
I know that this is only a small act of everyday creativity (I make no special claims for it) combining two perspectives to create a more holistic third concept that has meaning in the particular context in which it is developed. But on reflection I am wondering whether the process of combining ideas and perspectives goes on all the time in the academic world, when we take ideas grown in one context and apply them to another to create a new perspective on a phenomenon. For me it was interesting to see that this process happened when I went from my everyday familiar existence into an entirely new social-cultural context which exposed me to the views of other researchers who were also interested in the concept of learning ecologies. Putting myself into this unfamiliar context forced me to combine my ideas with the ideas of the edulab research team. In the process of doing this I expanded my own understanding of the way in which affordance, relating to the use of technology, features in the ecological process of professional development.
Combining two or more ideas, particularly if they are ideas that are not obviously connected, seems to be a common basis for innovation in the business world. In the academic world some of the most dynamic and innovative fields of knowledge growth lie in the interdisciplinary domains where ideas, frameworks or methodologies developed in one discipline are applied in another to create a new perspective or insight. I make no special claims for creativity through my story, I am simply recognising that the changed circumstances of my life enabled this simple process of combining ideas to produce a new conceptual representation to emerge. It struck me that combining ideas from different sources is an act of co-creating new meaning even if only one person is doing the combining. By sharing the new combined idea with the people responsible for the other idea we hope that the co-created meaning will also be owned by the other contributors. But even if it is rejected the idea has still been brought into existence. Perhaps this is the fundamental way in which academic conceptual knowledge is incrementally developed (co-created) effectively connecting the learning ecologies of different researchers working in different contexts.
INVITATION TO SHARE A STORY
If you would like to share a story of when you have combined ideas to produce something new please visit our new 'Creative Life' project. We are aiming to produce the next issue of Creative Academic magazine from the people who contribute a story.
Scenario - Type A ICT enabled ecology of professional development
We might imagine a general scenario where a science teacher perceives a problem or challenge like a difficult concept that his pupils are struggling with SITUATED CONTEXT. He thinks he needs to develop new strategies to enable his students to learn and apply this concept. He has a PURPOSE based on a need and sets out a goal and a rough plan PROCESS to achieve his goal.
He creates a SPACE for thinking and action: a space for inquiry. He uses his imagination to identify the AFFORDANCES he has for learning in his immediate school environment. He has a colleague who he knows also has to teach this concept so he talks to her.
He also has a good network of teachers in his subject in other schools who he will contact via email and through a large on-line forum for science school teachers. He posts some questions in the forum and sends out emails. He also tries Twitter but many of his followers are not teachers so he doesn’t hold out much hope – but he thinks it's worth a try. He believes that if nothing is ventured nothing is gained and he's not afraid of taking a few risks! He gets several responses including one from Twitter and some links to some really useful resources including an animation on YouTube that explains the concept in a humorous way which he immediately thinks will work. He decides he will try out the animation and his colleague has given him a useful practical exercise that she says "always works".
He uses two teaching sessions with two different groups.. Sure enough the YouTube animation works really well and his students finally grasp the concept, not only that, the
students found the practical exercise really engaging. The next week he gave them a short test. The results made him very happy - they had remembered the concept and could apply the concept to a problem. He felt satisfied and at coffee break he told his colleague and persuaded her to try out the animation. On the way home he REFLECTED on the reasons for why the lesson had worked so well. He decided that it was because the animation had explained the concept in non-scientific language and related it to the everyday world of his students and humour helped as well. He resolved to use the same approach on another tricky concept. In this way what he had learnt continued to influence his practice. That evening, still feeling good, he decided to share what he had learnt with other science teachers so he made a post on the science teachers' forum and on Twitter.
Looking back on the experience he could see that he had learnt something useful, He had developed his understanding and made a small change to his practice. However, although he did not recognise it in these terms, he had also developed his understandings of how to learn by building an ecology containing these components. His success reinforced his beliefs in the value of social media and in having a network of colleagues and fellow practitioners he could draw upon when he needed help. After all, it's what he had always done.
We might imagine a general scenario where a science teacher perceives a problem or challenge like a difficult concept that his pupils are struggling with SITUATED CONTEXT. He thinks he needs to develop new strategies to enable his students to learn and apply this concept. He has a PURPOSE based on a need and sets out a goal and a rough plan PROCESS to achieve his goal.
He creates a SPACE for thinking and action: a space for inquiry. He uses his imagination to identify the AFFORDANCES he has for learning in his immediate school environment. He has a colleague who he knows also has to teach this concept so he talks to her.
He also has a good network of teachers in his subject in other schools who he will contact via email and through a large on-line forum for science school teachers. He posts some questions in the forum and sends out emails. He also tries Twitter but many of his followers are not teachers so he doesn’t hold out much hope – but he thinks it's worth a try. He believes that if nothing is ventured nothing is gained and he's not afraid of taking a few risks! He gets several responses including one from Twitter and some links to some really useful resources including an animation on YouTube that explains the concept in a humorous way which he immediately thinks will work. He decides he will try out the animation and his colleague has given him a useful practical exercise that she says "always works".
He uses two teaching sessions with two different groups.. Sure enough the YouTube animation works really well and his students finally grasp the concept, not only that, the
students found the practical exercise really engaging. The next week he gave them a short test. The results made him very happy - they had remembered the concept and could apply the concept to a problem. He felt satisfied and at coffee break he told his colleague and persuaded her to try out the animation. On the way home he REFLECTED on the reasons for why the lesson had worked so well. He decided that it was because the animation had explained the concept in non-scientific language and related it to the everyday world of his students and humour helped as well. He resolved to use the same approach on another tricky concept. In this way what he had learnt continued to influence his practice. That evening, still feeling good, he decided to share what he had learnt with other science teachers so he made a post on the science teachers' forum and on Twitter.
Looking back on the experience he could see that he had learnt something useful, He had developed his understanding and made a small change to his practice. However, although he did not recognise it in these terms, he had also developed his understandings of how to learn by building an ecology containing these components. His success reinforced his beliefs in the value of social media and in having a network of colleagues and fellow practitioners he could draw upon when he needed help. After all, it's what he had always done.
Type B Ecology for self-determined professional development
The Eco4learn project demonstrates that a majority of teachers do not routinely use ICT web-based tools including social media in their ecologies for professional development. The scenario depicted above could be recast to represent this situation.
A science teacher perceives a problem or challenge like a difficult concept that his pupils are struggling with SITUATED CONTEXT. He thinks he needs to develop new strategies to enable his students to learn and apply this concept. He has a PURPOSE based on a need and sets out a goal and a rough plan PROCESS to achieve his goal.
He creates a SPACE for thinking and action: a space for inquiry. He uses his imagination to identify the AFFORDANCES he has for learning in his immediate school environment. He has a colleague who he knows also has to teach this concept so he talks to her.
A month later he attends an out of school meeting with other science teachers from the district where he presents his problem and gets some good suggestions including a worksheet that one teacher said had worked very well.
He uses two teaching sessions with two different groups and tried out the ideas he had been given. They seemed to work well and his students finally grasp the concept, not only that, the
students found the practical exercise really engaging. The next week he gave them a short test. The results made him very happy - they had remembered the concept and could apply the concept to a problem. He felt satisfied and at coffee break he shared what he had done with his colleague and she said she would try his approach next time she taught the concept.
On the way home he reflected on the reasons for why the lesson had worked so well. He decided that it was because he had explained the concept in non-scientific language and related it to the everyday world of his students and his humour had helped as well. He resolved to use the same approach on another tricky concept. In this way what he had learnt continued to influence his practice. At the next meeting of local science teachers he shared his success and a number of colleagues expressed interest in trying it out for themselves.
Looking back on the experience he could see that he had learnt something useful, He had developed his understanding and made a small change to his practice. However, although he did not recognise it in these terms, he had also developed his understandings of how to learn by building an ecology containing these components. His success reinforced his beliefs in the value of social media and in having a network of colleagues and fellow practitioners he could draw upon when he needed help. After all, it's what he had always done.
New affordance, immediacy, resources and potential
for creative action provided by the social web
Presenting the science teacher's learning ecologies in this way shows that there are different ways of solving a professional development problem. The fundamental difference between the two scenarios is that by engaging with the tools and technologies of the Social Age of learning, building personal learning networks and inhabiting the on-line social world of professional learning, a teacher will find new affordances, or new potentials for action. They will see and appreciate that there are ways of learning and developing that they could not see before. A second feature is that Type A learning ecologies provide access to enormous range of resources in all sorts of repositories some formally curated by other professionals others, like the YouTube animation, provided informally. The third distinguishing feature is the immediacy of response - the well networked online social world provides the possibility for immediate response by tapping into many individuals the likelihood that someone will provide a solution is enhanced. Furthermore by connecting to a community of teachers that is global it taps into expertise that is global rather than parochial.The fourth feature of the use of technology is that the approach offers more potential for creative action and creative solutions than if technology was not involved. By sharing his solutions and evaluations he is contributing to the development of pedagogic knowledge for all current and future science teachers.
The Eco4learn project demonstrates that a majority of teachers do not routinely use ICT web-based tools including social media in their ecologies for professional development. The scenario depicted above could be recast to represent this situation.
A science teacher perceives a problem or challenge like a difficult concept that his pupils are struggling with SITUATED CONTEXT. He thinks he needs to develop new strategies to enable his students to learn and apply this concept. He has a PURPOSE based on a need and sets out a goal and a rough plan PROCESS to achieve his goal.
He creates a SPACE for thinking and action: a space for inquiry. He uses his imagination to identify the AFFORDANCES he has for learning in his immediate school environment. He has a colleague who he knows also has to teach this concept so he talks to her.
A month later he attends an out of school meeting with other science teachers from the district where he presents his problem and gets some good suggestions including a worksheet that one teacher said had worked very well.
He uses two teaching sessions with two different groups and tried out the ideas he had been given. They seemed to work well and his students finally grasp the concept, not only that, the
students found the practical exercise really engaging. The next week he gave them a short test. The results made him very happy - they had remembered the concept and could apply the concept to a problem. He felt satisfied and at coffee break he shared what he had done with his colleague and she said she would try his approach next time she taught the concept.
On the way home he reflected on the reasons for why the lesson had worked so well. He decided that it was because he had explained the concept in non-scientific language and related it to the everyday world of his students and his humour had helped as well. He resolved to use the same approach on another tricky concept. In this way what he had learnt continued to influence his practice. At the next meeting of local science teachers he shared his success and a number of colleagues expressed interest in trying it out for themselves.
Looking back on the experience he could see that he had learnt something useful, He had developed his understanding and made a small change to his practice. However, although he did not recognise it in these terms, he had also developed his understandings of how to learn by building an ecology containing these components. His success reinforced his beliefs in the value of social media and in having a network of colleagues and fellow practitioners he could draw upon when he needed help. After all, it's what he had always done.
New affordance, immediacy, resources and potential
for creative action provided by the social web
Presenting the science teacher's learning ecologies in this way shows that there are different ways of solving a professional development problem. The fundamental difference between the two scenarios is that by engaging with the tools and technologies of the Social Age of learning, building personal learning networks and inhabiting the on-line social world of professional learning, a teacher will find new affordances, or new potentials for action. They will see and appreciate that there are ways of learning and developing that they could not see before. A second feature is that Type A learning ecologies provide access to enormous range of resources in all sorts of repositories some formally curated by other professionals others, like the YouTube animation, provided informally. The third distinguishing feature is the immediacy of response - the well networked online social world provides the possibility for immediate response by tapping into many individuals the likelihood that someone will provide a solution is enhanced. Furthermore by connecting to a community of teachers that is global it taps into expertise that is global rather than parochial.The fourth feature of the use of technology is that the approach offers more potential for creative action and creative solutions than if technology was not involved. By sharing his solutions and evaluations he is contributing to the development of pedagogic knowledge for all current and future science teachers.
RSS Feed