The FEST was presented by ISKME, the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, whose mission is to “improve the practice of continuous learning, collaboration, and change in the education sector.” A mouthful. And they mean it!
It was four days, 20 speakers, afternoons of “Action Collabing” (more below), and exciting exchanging and networking. We brainstormed and collaborated. We listened and were in awe. We took action and created together. We were inspired and exhausted.
There is too much to share. Here are a few snippets.
Many speakers inspired us with innovative ideas and entrepreneurial achievements. Their actions empowered people, improving education and providing avenues out of poverty. Duolinguo for example, is a website dedicated to free language learning created by Luis Von Ahn. Having access to learning English can be a major tool in moving out of poverty. Throughout the workshop I was continually aware of privilege in relation to race, gender, country of origin, etc. Growing up speaking English is also an advantage.
Another speaker Tyson Amir-Mustafa of Five Keys Charter School did a rap called “Out.” It was powerful and uniquely poetic. I tried to find it to post here. A main theme in BIF 2015 was the school to prison pipeline. Amir and others led the workshop off with incredible stories and frank speeches about race, education and privilege. The honesty in the room was powerful.
Jaqueline Sanderlin is the leader of Educational Partnerships, Compton Unified School District, in Los Angeles. She had incredible insight around the importance of creating partnerships with businesses, rather than receiving money. Of course! She said, businesses “don’t want to get down, they want to give up” (their money). Instead, she recommends businesses “get down with you” and be in relationship. What she did was create a partnership with a prominent restaurant in Beverly Hills. As a result, the restaurant invited 100 young men from Compton to learn the etiquette of fine dining and fine food. This relationship developed into an annual event spanning eight years!
Other speakers were the 11-year-old entrepreneur, Kylee Majkowski and Olympic figure skater, Kristi Yamaguchi, as well as men and women who had stories of turning impossible situations around. The Force was in the room. (I couldn’t help but write that). These speakers proved that change is possible, even in situations that seemed impossible. Their thinking was innovative.
I had not heard of Design Thinking before the Big Idea Fest and now classically, it has popped into view several times, most recently in the New York Times article, ‘Design-Thinking’ for a better you by Tara Parker-Pope. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/01/04/design-thinking-for-a-better-you/.
Put simply, design thinking is a strategy for innovation and problem solving. It is fantastic for educators. ISKME has developed a process of design thinking called the Action Collab. They describe it as "a collaborative approach to problem-solving that combines human-centered design thinking concepts with improvisation techniques to unlock a group’s creativity and capacity for innovation." It happens in four steps:
Identify opportunity (gather) - What are the insights?
Design (imagine) – What could it be?
Prototype (build) – How does it work?
Impact (test) – How can you move it forward?
The focus on improvisation and brainstorming was surprising, but also how specifically our ideating was channeled, thus avoiding the pitfall of ideas becoming a giant snowball. The Action Collab process led us to realizations and more pointed conclusions.
I was reminded of the collaborative process of theatre where we are always problem solving, improvising, thinking in space, on our feet, physically and in terms of design. I hadn’t thought of using this group dynamic to problem solve outside of theater. In laying the foundation for such brainstorming, we participated in improvisational theater games throughout the Big Idea Fest.
The improv games gave us the tools and lay the groundwork for how we could collaborate during the Fest and in the Action Collabs. Inherently, improvisation teaches the importance of listening and withholding judgment. It also gets people who don’t know each other to stand up, become active learners, laugh and experience collaborating on something new. The tenets of improv are:
• Let go of your agenda
• Listen in order to receive
• You can’t be wrong
• Make your partner look brilliant
• Keep moving forward
Another basic principle of improv is, “Yes, and….” It involves the “yes” of accepting someone’s idea, “...and” then sharing your own. It demands being brave and putting out “half baked” ideas. This is an energetic rush and creates collaborative atmospheres quickly.
My specific Action Collab’s problem was creating an arts based curriculum. The process led us from interviewing, talking, writing on sticky notes, to creating tangible models, made from gems of crazy scrap materials. The prototypes we created propelled us to think out of the box, away from language hang-ups and misunderstandings. We focused our discussions on the model, the problem, rather than each other abstract generalities. The model was tangibly in front of us to contemplate. We worked quickly. Important tips in this process are to: think big, start small and work fast!
Besides the Action Collabs, the “Analogous Settings Activity” is simple and smart. We were asked to identify settings that dealt with common insights or relationships (tensions, unarticulated needs, etc.) similar to education, such as: marriage, the legal profession, or medical situations. Again, the exercise demanded we think outside the box. A famous example is a design thinking organization that was hired by the medical profession. It was seeking ways to operate more efficiently in fast paced, high stress situations. They ended up finding a parallel through looking at NASCAR pit crews. Today, when a patient comes into the ER, the care is better, more comprehensive and faster.
High school students also participated in Big Ideas Fest. Their insight was invaluable throughout, especially as we broke into small groups. They finally busted out and danced to their own music on stage the last day. I left exhilarated.
All of these experiences would not have been possible without the scholarships from Arts Ed Matters and ISKME. I am deeply grateful to both.
As the Big Ideas Fest 2015 website states: Action Collabs are an innovative way to: Tackle a familiar challenge from a new angle. Spark strategic thinking around a new initiative. Discover partnerships waiting to happen.
All this happened!
~ Heidi Carlsen
Arts Educator, Actor, Director, MFA
Feldenkrais Practitioner, GCFP
For more information go to:
ISKME : http://www.iskme.org
Big Ideas Fest: http://www.bigideasfest.org/about-big-ideas-fest
Arts Ed Matters: http://www.artsedmatters.org
