“It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night”  – David Ogilvy I’ve been thinking a lot about learning lately, and how best to make what we choose to teach in schools poignant: meaningful, relevant, and memorable. Reflecting on the quote above, I think educators can learn a lot from the marketing sector. from Disney’s 1959 “Sleeping Beauty” – the e

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

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

“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

I often bolt out of bed thinking of things that seem quite sensible at 4am but perhaps not so much at 3:45 in the afternoon. I’m not sure about this idea, but I’m going to give it a go. It’s basically a structure – a lens through which one can look everything new. That’s getting to the ” – ness” of it but what does it mean for learners? Could teachers use this with students? Could leaders use this with their teams? WOW This is, of course, what strikes you. It’s about noticing

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

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),

Forgive me, but I was a bit tricksy in the title of this post. I’ve been thinking about this for years, probably, but as I see society seemingly crumbling before us in recent months it’s become more of a nagging preoccupation. I’m a big fan of simplification…abstraction…distillation – of getting to the “ness” of something. What if our curriculum  – any curriculum in any school – was based on just two domains…lenses through which one can peer and prod at everything? PHILOSOPHY

In my presentations on creativity, I always suggest to folks to have a dream diary…some sort of notebook by the bed to record thoughts upon waking or archive actual dreams, if vivid enough. The artist Salvador Dali notoriously fancied pinning down the meanderings of his subconscious, even devising methods to force himself awake in the midst of a dream. The most well-known anecdote involves him falling asleep holding a spoon over a tin plate, and when it would invariably drop

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

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

Lately I’ve been chatting about edtech with a friend and in discussing how to get teachers (or anyone in any organization for that matter) not only interested in but embracing technology integration it occurred to me there might be a trajectory of sorts. What must you start with to get the “buy-in”? How do you progress from there? How might one show the possibilities so that folks can start thinking in this language rather than merely translating? I generally simplify things

Have you ever thought yourself to be a fraud in some respect? Have you questioned your so-called “expertise” in your field or even wondered, as so poetically expressed by eighties new waver-in-existentialist-disguise David Byrne, How did I get here? Whilst I am relatively confident in my own skills, experience, and talent, I’m certainly not immune to self-doubt. It occurred to me this morning that, while I love learning for learning’s sake, and continually seek out opportunit

note bene: while this post is directly applicable to educational organizations, the strategies may be effectively applied to any organization As schools start back up again, teachers seek ways to “get to know” their students and cultivate a healthy classroom community. Many schools engage in pre-term professional development and other meetings in order to prepare for the new year. Confession: I have never been a fan of meetings, in particular. In fact, in some of my workshops

Just over a week ago I had the utmost privilege to fly over two oceans and be part of the inaugural cohort of Sea Salt Learning’s “Social Age Safari” in Bristol, U.K. It was only my second time in England and first time meeting some of the lovely thinkers I’d been engaging with on Twitter for so long – in particular, the “Captain” of the event and fellow Paper by Fifty-Three user, Julian Stodd. my virgin “passport” awaiting stamps There is truly so much on which to reflect, b

Last night I serendipitously came across this great documentary on the great “advertising creatives” of the last 60 years. “Art and Copy”, directed by Doug Pray, weaves together interviews from the people whose work became, as Shakespeare once said, “familiar as household names” but whose own names remain obscure to the average citizen. from http://www.theinspiration.com/ These are the people who developed iconic marketing campaigns such as “Think Different”, “Got Milk?”, “Wh

Today I had the pleasure of watching (and reading) Howard Rheingold’s interview with Unflattening author Nick Sousanis. Like Howard, I am a big fan of Nick’s work- not only for the content (which is phenomenal), but for the essence of it- the “ness” I mentioned in an earlier post. I love the way Nick maintained a process journal of sorts on his “Spin Weave Cut” site and always points people there to be a part of his “living” work. That is what the #showyourwork movement (via

my version: bull with wifi A few weeks ago I was in one of my favourite Twitter chats – #EDENchat – with Steve Wheeler (@timbuckteeth) as host. The topic was “Which Personal Technologies?” (check out the Storify), and overall was lively, helpful, and civil.  But something about the conversation struck me about halfway through – it occurred to be suddenly that a preoccupation with devices, hardware, and software persists. Don’t get me wrong – I think most people have moved int

“You just need to tell the world about what you’re doing, why it fascinates you and illuminate the process of finding things out” – Professor David Kipping, Columbia University Imagine sitting in bed watching the Science Channel with your daughter and you hear a great quote from the astronomy expert  – exomoonologist, to be exact- being interviewed. It intrigues you so much you sketch it (as you tend to do with clever soundbites), and decide to share it on Twitter. Because yo

When was the last time you were asked to share “best practices”? This phrase came up yesterday for me in a Twitter chat, and it suddenly dawned on me that I take issue with the term. It sounds too authoritative and stagnant, with shades of “expert” at which I tend to cringe. I totally get the motive- we want to hear from people who have had some degree of success in fill-in-the-blank. We want to know their secrets..what “works”…what we can “count on”. We are drawn to “proven