Creativity and Leadership

For Thursday (tomorrow), watch this video. Just watch it.

Now, watch it again. Pay close attention to what happens to things as they explode in slow motion. Think about what that motion feels like, how the parts come and go as they accelerate away from each other. If you feel compelled, watch some other things exploding on YouTube as well, but I would encourage you to focus on slow-motion explosions.

This exercise should take you no more than 5 minutes, although if you're easily distracted, it could take you hours. :D 

UPDATE: This is in addition to you being ready to read ("perform" ... hopefully this is not a "cold" reading) a classmate's bio. The video watching really should be fairly quick.

Hi all,

If you're at a loss for how to focus your journal, you might explore something along the lines of the following:

What kinds of organizations have you been part of, and what kinds of leaders did you see in those organizations? Did any of them exhibit any of the qualities like those you're reading about in "Starfish"? If so, did it help the organization (or not), and how? If not, what role do you see leaders and catalysts with these abilities playing in groups today?

As you recall, we're aiming for an organic discussion on Tuesday. Come in and join a conversation. If you find a large group, you might find some people who want to splinter off into another conversation. Let things proceed the way they proceed.

Note that you might want to take notes during these discussions. Something I've noticed is that none of you take notes during discussions. Perhaps you all have super-memories, or perhaps you didn't realize that taking notes during a discussion helps you remember the good ideas you pick up from your classmates while also helping focus your own ideas. I thought I'd mention it now, and we'll talk more about that in the future... give it a go if you can, but our big goal is to see what kinds of interesting and insightful conversations we can get into Tuesday!

This week we'll be writing, revising, reading, and discussing. Note that I've now had a day to digest my thoughts a bit, and I'm flipping the week around from what I said on Thursday.

TUESDAY

Come in with your bio. No more than 500 words. Please write it in Google Docs, and share it with me as described in the video below.

We'll do some readings from those bios in class, so please bring a copy in printed form. I would blow the font size up so that the bio takes up the majority of a single page.

THURSDAY

We'll have revised our bios, but I won't say more about that until Tuesday. (You'll see why.)  We'll start with some improv, and then move on to readings of our revised bios – much to your dismay, no doubt, as it will involve video, largely because I am evil. 

However, the revisions of your bios (conditions surrounding the revisions TBA) will not take long. Please be readings chapters 1-3 of the Starfish and the Spider. As with our earlier readings, please drop a journal in Google Docs (see the sharing video, above) regarding your reading of the first three chapters. As a starting point for your journal entry, you might reflect on educational institutions (and how they are, or are not, like starfish and/or spiders), or you might reflect on something else entirely. 

I hope you enjoy taking charge of where this course will go. Personally, I'm excited.

My thinking is this:

[ Thursday, September 3 ]
In our groups, we'll brainstorm and discuss ideas for how to structure a 2-3 week section of the course surrounding that group's text. Before the end of the class, each group will give a quick presentation about their ideas to the rest of the class. (You're allowed to discuss/share ideas across groups freely!)

[ Tuesday, September 8 ]
 For Tuesday, you should (in the wiki) have a draft of a 2-3 week plan. It should include what readings, what discussions, and what writing/presentation we will be doing during that time. We'll look at these as a group, and discuss each of them for 15 minutes (15 x 4 = 1 hour). Each group will take the feedback from this session for revision and refinement. 

We'll also have a short discussion regarding a reading related to our interview the next week.

[ Thursday, September 10 ]
Final designs are due in the wiki. I'll ask for each of you to do a group eval (meaning, evaluate your peers). 

On that Thursday, we'll have a bit more discussion about our interview, and spend time in class working on questions for the interviewee. This will likely overflow into out-of-class work.

[ Week of Sept 13 ]
The goal is to use some of one of the class periods for an interview. TBA.

I'll be asking you to use Google Docs to share your work with me throughout the semester. I've already shared a folder with you, so this video shows you how to use that video to "hand in" your essays and the like.

The video is just shy of 2 minutes long, and should help make things clear.