In my MAET class, one of my professors guided us through some really great creativity activities. In one of the activities, my professor handed out a different technology tool (read: toy) to each person and we each had to think of all the ways we could use the tool. The emphasis was on coming up with outlandish or strange ways of using the technology.
I was given "Twitter" and I tried to come up with the strangest ways I could possibly think of to use it. This was challenging for me because I am still very new to twitter and I don't think I have a good grasp of its power. Here were some of my ideas.
Twitter could be used as...
-A Diary for someone with ADD
-A memory tool for someone with amnesia
-A brainstorm tool for a rapper
-A list of all purchases for someone who lives on a budget
-A dating service.
-A terrible way to learn English
You get the idea. I'm sure people have done stranger things with Twitter but this is as crazy as I could get in during our limited time frame. It also didn't help that I just stared off into space for a bit trying to come up with my first "great" idea.
I wasn't very impressed with my skills and abilities but I could feel my creativity waking up deep down inside of me. I felt more creative at the end of the day then I did at the beginning. It was as if my creativity was being pulled to the surface so I could get at it more easily. I think I pounded it down deep inside of me over the years. Maybe if I did this kind of thing everyday I could really develop my skills!
I feel like these types of activities would be great lead ups for bigger projects or problems solving challenges. Something to "get the juices flowing" so to speak. I could see my self having my students do this before the first project I give them. My projects usually involve some sort of open ended piece and many students struggle with coming up with ideas so maybe a little creativity practice would go a long way.
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