Raw Thoughts Blog | amyburvall.com

Nov 18, 2018
2 min

Crushing It With Creativity: The Virtual Summit Keynote

This past Friday I stayed up till midnight as I had the privilege to offer the opening keynote for EdTechTeam’s “The Virtual Summit”, EU edition. EdTechTeam Press published my book with Dan Ryder, Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom, and this event seemed perfect since its theme was “Creativity”. A few days prior, Ed Tech Team published a blog post I wrote describing some of the things I planned to share. I decided to pen some verse for this: Being creative can me

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Amy Burvall

Nov 8, 2018
2 min

Creativity is not a dirty word

Are you afraid of the word “creativity”? Or perhaps you simply have a disdain for what you believe to be a fruitless abstraction. Maybe you think creativity is a fluffy concept, distinct from the “real getting down to business” business. There’s a chance you might feel alienated from the notion of “being creative” – that it is the sole realm of artsy, whimsical types who are inclined to sport neckerchiefs and strange amulets. And of course, you might be just tired of the term

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Amy Burvall

Nov 8, 2018
1 min

If These Walls Could Talk…

I’ve known the lovely Alice Keeler for years and, like, everyone, am always amazed by her creative output and contributions to the education community. Recently, I had the privilege to pen a guest blog post for her site, which was a bit on the lengthy side so it launched in two parts. The ideas focus on developing a creative culture with three different “wall” concepts. These are strategies that can be used in any learning space….physical or adapted to digital, and for any le

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Get Your Creativity On: Summertime Learning with Amy and Academic Tribe

Amy Burvall

Jun 25, 2018
1 min

Get Your Creativity On: Summertime Learning with Amy and Academic Tribe

Very pleased to be designing a few online learning experiences in collaboration with the great folks at Academic Tribe. head to the LX Design site The first is perfect for anyone wanting to explore their personal creativity, or test out ways to use photography and the smartphone with other learners. You need a mobile device with a camera, though I have a list of recommended apps you can play with for added effect. This is a 3 week course based around these themes: Wonder: the

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Intelligence Having Fun: Keynoting Learning Technologies Summer Forum 2018 in London

Amy Burvall

Jun 25, 2018
13 min

Intelligence Having Fun: Keynoting Learning Technologies Summer Forum 2018 in London

What does “creativity” have to do with “learning technologies”, the future of work, working with teams in the corporate sector? Why does something so seemingly esoteric need to be unpacked? Can an abstract concept like “creativity” be made relevant and practical to folks who need useful strategies they can implement tomorrow? I have to commend Donald H. Taylor , Chair of the Learning Technologies Conference, for taking a chance on a (surprisingly!) controversial topic and me,

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Amy Burvall

May 19, 2018
1 min

Creativity Tips #11-20 for #LDvid30

I can’t believe I’ve finished 20 of these – 10 more to go! I’ve really enjoyed coming up with something each day…particularly trying to correlate with a daily event or a metaphor I’ve come across in my day-to-day living. Most amusing, of course, are all the “fails” from the voice recognition….maybe that will be a blooper roll. List-Less On Whimsy (HVIMA) and Being More Eurovision Gathering Dust For Stars Think Like your Kid Make More Stuff Resistance Is Not Futile Lessons fro

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Creativity Tips Vlog Series: 1-10 #LDvid30

Amy Burvall

May 12, 2018
1 min

Creativity Tips Vlog Series: 1-10 #LDvid30

“Creativity Tips!” Bet you didn’t see that coming. What I am trying to do is keep it raw, going with whatever I shoot in one take. I’m also trying to incorporate a visual in each episode and tap into metaphor a bit. Some topics are influenced by my previous work in this field, but others are totally spontaneous, relating to something going on at present. As for the tech, I am experimenting with, which can result, I’ve discovered, in some pretty hilarious voice recognition sna

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Treading on Dreams: The Art of the #lookdown

Amy Burvall

Apr 30, 2018
3 min

Treading on Dreams: The Art of the #lookdown

Stephen Hawking has just recently passed away, and we are reminded of his quote: “Look up at the stars and not down at your feet…Be curious” I often wonder whether he nicked that idea from the “Father of Roman poetry Quintus Ennius: “No one regards what is before his feet; we all gaze at the stars” With all due respect, I’d have to challenge these gentlemen. As much as I find it important to #lookup (I have an entire series of Instagram photos tagged with this), being in a pe

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The Rigorous Whimsy Experience: Learning with #IntentiontheBook

Amy Burvall

Mar 2, 2018
7 min

The Rigorous Whimsy Experience: Learning with #IntentiontheBook

February was a whirlwind month for me as a creativity and learning consultant. I had the opportunity to rekindle my relationship with the Independent Schools of British Colombia (@ISABC1), as well as meet new friends in the Catholic Schools of the Vancouver Archdiocese (@CISVA2) and the lovely IB school on Vancouver Island – Aspengrove. my ferry to the Island surprise! (for a reflection of the Catholic Schools Conference see this post) After a few days of snow-filled respite

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Spines and Wine – Serendipitous Couplets with Found Books

Amy Burvall

Mar 1, 2018
2 min

Spines and Wine – Serendipitous Couplets with Found Books

How thrilled I was, upon presenting at a recent conference in Portland, Oregon, that the hotel featured not one but two monochromatic-themed bookshelves! The first – in degrees of white- was in the lobby, whilst the second – in more than 50 shades of grey – was in the ‘secret club’ room, to which I happily had access. It was in this room I found myself waiting for some friends to finish work, sipping on some local pinot noir, that I decided to have a go at book spine poetry.

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Laudato Si: Learning from Pope Francis About Creative Caring

Amy Burvall

Feb 12, 2018
4 min

Laudato Si: Learning from Pope Francis About Creative Caring

On February 8, 2018 I was honoured to be asked to speak to Catholic Educators from Vancouver (and indeed, some came from the farthest reaches of Canada) at the exquisite Convention Centre downtown. In preparation for my talk on “Critical Creativity”, I gave a good read-through to Laudato Si, a beautifully worded letter by Pope Francis. My Twitter friend and one of the organizers, Rose Pillay, informed me that the conference theme was “Care for Everyone in our Common Home” – d

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Pillow in the Cloud: the #SEIitagain Project

Amy Burvall

Jan 24, 2018
3 min

Pillow in the Cloud: the #SEIitagain Project

Over 1,000 years ago, in Japan’s Heian (which translates to “peace and tranquility”) Court, a lady-in-waiting to the retired Empress received a gift of paper… The story goes that the Empress had no need of this “bundle of notebooks” and asked this lady-in-waiting what she should do with them. Her response? “This should be a pillow, then…” Historians have dismissed literal translations of “makura” as “pillow” – at least in the way we know a pillow to be. But Japanese head rest

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Mushroom Moments: Art and the Hawaii Ballistic Missile Alarm

Amy Burvall

Jan 16, 2018
7 min

Mushroom Moments: Art and the Hawaii Ballistic Missile Alarm

from my #digitalDADA #mushroommomments collection For a while now I’ve been at extreme unease regarding the possibility of nuclear conflict with North Korea. I live in Hawaii, and grew up in San Diego – both extremely attractive targets due to their military bases, and in the case of the 50th state, its vulnerability. My mom used to recount tales of duck and cover drills during the Cold War, and she said she always asked her teachers and parents if San Diego (due to the Navy)

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Balance Over Ban: 5 Reasons Why We Shouldn’t Prohibit Smartphones in the Classroom

Amy Burvall

Dec 13, 2017
5 min

Balance Over Ban: 5 Reasons Why We Shouldn’t Prohibit Smartphones in the Classroom

I must say I was appalled when I read this piece this morning (and responded with several tweets of my own). I called this decision “naive and unfortunate”, and finally decided to jot some of my points down here. Smartphones… …are the Zeitgeist, from which there is no return As apprehensive as folks may be, smartphones have changed the way we work, create, live, interact with others….indefinitely. Yet, when considering all the other forms of technology humans have developed,

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Amy Burvall

Dec 12, 2017
11 min

Amy Burvall: Keynotes and Workshops

I’ve decided to update my list of talks and workshops and compile all into a pdf menu. I’m able to customize most of them to fit certain time frames or address specific needs. I really love the “deep dives” or 3-4 hour workshops with groups of 20-50. The variety of offerings related to my book with Dan Ryder, Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom can also be given with Dan if he is available. I’ve done two TEDx talks (TEDxHonolulu 2011 and TEDxWestVancouverED 2017),

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Visual Thinking: Image is Everything and Mad for Metaphor

Amy Burvall

Oct 4, 2017
3 min

Visual Thinking: Image is Everything and Mad for Metaphor

One of my favourite workshops I’ve developed is “Image is Everything”. It’s a visual thinking experience that can be anywhere from 1-6 hours (or all day, or over a two day conference). The point is NOT to “learn to sketchnote” as so many related workshops are. In fact, although I do drawings to represent my or others’ thinking, I would not identify as a “sketchnoter”. A lot of my friends are, and they are fab, but I need to distill…I need to simplify into one icon only…that’s

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Critical Creativity for Grownups: Teachers Try INTENTIONtheBook

Amy Burvall

Oct 3, 2017
3 min

Critical Creativity for Grownups: Teachers Try INTENTIONtheBook

When Dan Ryder and I wrote Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom we knew in the back of our minds that the first three “framing” chapters of the book – about creativity and how it works – are really for everyone. You don’t have to work in the education sphere to get some takeaways or (hopefully) be inspired. We also knew that the activities we describe in the catalogue could indeed, as we claim be relevant in any curriculum with any age group. As we assert Creativi

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#rawthought: 10 Ways We Can Do Cancer Differently

Amy Burvall

Oct 2, 2017
10 min

#rawthought: 10 Ways We Can Do Cancer Differently

my minimalist self portrait It’s my ten year anniversary of being diagnosed (ironically in October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month), with a Stage 3 breast cancer. Since then I’ve had more than 20 related surgeries and have lost my mom to a double whammy of colon and breast cancer. I don’t have many photos of myself from that time period, though there’s a scarf-clad me popping up in a slide during my TEDx talk, in which I discuss the healing effect of collaborative creativity.

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Thinking Like an Artist: Be Porous, Push Past, and Play

Amy Burvall

Sep 29, 2017
4 min

Thinking Like an Artist: Be Porous, Push Past, and Play

What seemed like ages ago I did my first TEDx talk – TEDxHonolulu 2011 – with my creative partner from “History for Music Lovers”, Herb Mahelona. It was really tricksy because we didn’t live on the same island and therefore couldn’t practice together until the day before the event, each having memorized our respective parts of the script and practicing with voice recordings of the other punctuated by pauses. To be honest I thought I’d never do another one until several months

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#rawthought: On Ditching the (Dangerous) Dichotomy Between Content Knowledge and Creativity

Amy Burvall

Aug 6, 2017
6 min

#rawthought: On Ditching the (Dangerous) Dichotomy Between Content Knowledge and Creativity

“Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life…” – Pablo Picasso I’ve taken this completely out of context (Picasso was alluding to work/life balance and loving your day job), but I think it’s applicable nonetheless. I love playing with dichotomy as a concept – particularly a visual one…in fact I’ve got a few exercises such as going on a metaphor hunt and photographing juxtapositions like “old and new”. I snapped this in Oxford, England…old Tudor building and a guy on a smartpho

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Amy Burvall

Dec 28, 2020
6 min

Also....Advent (an Alternative Advent Calendar, 2020)

This year I decided to once again use the digital Advent calendar creation site https://tuerchen.com/ However, I noticed that they don't...

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Amy Burvall

Nov 29, 2020
1 min

The #globalthankswondercut project

If you were to write a love letter to the world what would it be? A Crowdsourced Creativity Project In the midst of this global pandemic...

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