Creativity, ISP 5660
Class 2
2/6/06
Class: http://www.is.wayne.edu/drbowen/crtvyw06
Moodle: http://techtools.culma.wayne.edu/moodle
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Agenda
1.
2.
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5.
6.
2/6/06
Initial the signin sheet
Issues for online students
Review of assignments
Initial ideas about creativity
Writing for the creativity course
And…
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Issues for online students
• Technical
o
Keep email inbox open
• WSU Webmail shows % of capacity
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Call Instructor if her/his email inbox is full
Watch your file sizes (graphics)
Understand the methods of contacting
Instructor (face time, telephone, email,
conference)
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Issues for online students
• Non-technical
o
o
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You are not out there on your own
Ask for help early (don’t let a problem build
up)
Don’t let backlog build up – it’ll bite ya!
To get the most out of course, jump in to
messaging
Have opinions! Express yourself!
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Review of Assignments
• Where we are in the course
• What you should do
• How I grade messages
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Substantive
Related to course content
Satisfactory / Unsatisfactory (does not count)
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Hey folks!
Semester is 25% over and some people
haven’t gotten started yet
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Sherman Gray
Gregory Jones
Kyle Mack
Sherrie Robinson
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Hey folks!
Some people are off to a slow start, at least in
postings
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•
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Dana Brazelton
Ana Ross
Kay Russell
Tiffany Russell
Monique Williams
The Assignment Schedule (in the Syllabus on
the course web site)
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Every Week
• Reading (carry a book with you!)
• Messages to conference. Comments on your
reading make good comments. Read
actively!
• Thinking about the essay for that book
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Every Week
• Check email
• Check Forums
o
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Subscribing to a Forum does give you a lot of
email, but has clickable links to the Forum
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Once only but past due:
• First three messages (intro, creative person,
What about creativity is interesting)
• Choice of topic for Essay 1
o
o
Not yet: Beall, Brazelton, Chevalier, Bacher,
Kuffa, Landrum, Russell (both), Wilburn,
Williams
Essay topics on course web site
• “Essay Topics for ISP 5660”
• Four-credits?
 Choice of fourth book next week (Williams)
 Draft essay topic for fourth book as a Forum
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message
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Posting in Forums
• Relevant to course (loosely interpreted, but
comments on reading are good)
• If content is a reply, then
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Message should be a reply
Use Reply to establish a context
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Using Moodle
• Subscribing: signed up for email messages
o
Unsubscribing – two steps
• “Edit profile,” change “Forum auto-subscribe” to
“No: don’t automatically subscribe me…”
• Click on “Forums,” then on all “Yes” in the
“Subscribed” column
• “Grades”
o
Number of “Satisfactory” posts
• Apparently cannot see this post-by-post
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Grades on other assignments
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Using Moodle (cont’d)
• To see only your own posts:
o
“Activity report” then “Forum posts”
• To see everything
o
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“Activity report” then “Complete report”
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Initial Ideas About Creativity
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Definitions and related concepts
Creativity and (children, ADD / ADHD /
mental illness, popularity)
What’s inside
Conflicting characteristics
Corporate Creativity
a. Compare to Csikszentmihalyi
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Creativity and Friends #1
• Creativity – something new that meets a
need or solves a problem(in the symbolic
culture)
o
o
Big C Vs little c
Creative product?
• Innovation - something new that meets a
need or solves a problem (in the material
culture)
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Creativity and Friends #2
• Novelty – something that is new, without
solving a problem or meeting a need (e.g. a
fad like the hula hoop)
• Problem-solving – meeting the problems of
everyday life
• Performance
• Flow – internal state
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Creativity Process
1.
2.
3.
4.
Preparation
Block
Inspiration (aha)
Finishing (assessing, revising)
Your creativity requires autonomy, can
be cut off but not steered or directed
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Creativity and Children
• Often have novel and appealing ideas
• Not so good at:
o
o
Choosing a significant problem
Assessing and revising
• Few famous children go on to remain so as
adults
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Creativity and mental illness
• Similar to children – novel ideas but
significance and follow-through are difficult
to manage
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Creativity and Popularity
(alignment)
Non-aligned
domain
Aligned Domain
The arrows are the same length
1. Helps to be out on the edge if you are going to move the domain.
2. Easier to see the change in an aligned domain
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Conditions for Creativity
• Autonomy, Free Time and Focus
o
Letting your unconscious do its thing
• Support from and connection to the field
o
Example: poetry (not so popular in US). How would
you learn what a poem is? You need the field.
• Some early success
• “Weak links”
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Strong (e.g. family) Vs weak (e.g. via email) links –
you get nothing new from your strong links – you know
them too well
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What’s Inside
Me as an example
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Conflicting traits
• Creativity, The Creative Personality Chapter
Three
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extroversion Vs introversion (both)
traditional and conservative Vs rebellious and
iconoclastic
humble Vs proud
I believe these arise because creative projects
require contradictory traits at different times –
e.g. proud enough to propose something new,
humble enough to seek advice
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Corporate Creativity
• Many people think that business is the opposite of
creative – manipulative, controlling, resistant to
change, but all of the business world that we see is
the result of creativity and innovation
• Business has some advantages, even
o
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Good at bringing in extra people and resources,
otherwise available only to the famous
One way to get the opposed personalities without the
inner conflict
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Corporate Creativity
compared with others
Corp. Creativity (Pg 12) Csikszentmihalyi etc.
1. Alignment
Structured (pg 39)
2. Self-initiated activity
Autonomy
3. Unofficial activity
Idea before refinement
4. Serendipity
Luck in problem choice
5. Diverse stimuli
Know the field, domain
6. Communication
Weak links (elsewhere)
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Writing for Creativity
• Content, Form, Mechanics
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CONTENT: Part of my purpose is to see that
you have read and understood the texts
FORM: Title, Intro, Body, Conclusion,
consistent voice (I, you, one, etc.), changes in
opinion, tense etc. are under control and not
accidental (transitions)
MECHANICS: Use spell-check and grammarcheck (but ~ 1/3 passive tense is OK), needed
sometimes, e.g. when you don’t know the actor
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Writing for Creativity
• CONCLUSION: No new information, else
thinking is not done. (exception – to open subject
up to show its larger significance)
• TITLE: Describe essay, can have fun with this
• Include your own opinions, feelings, comments,
experiences, reactions
• Cover sheet: your name, which question (you
don’t really want me to guess, do you?)
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Some new Architecture
• Architects (and sculptors and composers)
clearly require a field
• Architects want to design creatively
• They also want people to be innovative
and creative within their buildings
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