My last blog entry described 4 types of idea development. This rubric is helpful to me (and perhaps to others) who are working with students on the idea formation process. However, it doesn’t get to the essential pedagogical challenge, that of what projects and activities to construct that will ignite students’ imaginations and constructive processes.
In working with my students at Drexel, I’ve begun to understand that there may be overarching idea development processes that are new to their and nearby generations. This process appears to be highly interactive, with little, if any heed paid to personal ownership of an idea.
Past generations, mine included, prized the dazzle of personal idea creation. In fact we have celebrates the great inventors and entrepreneurs in high and low media. A string of heroic names comes to mind.
Does this “starcentric” focus on invention and entrepreneurship work in today’s world? Does it matter — as young people today work in different ways?
It would be easy to assume that social networking and digital technology in general is the primary driver of collaborative and selfless idea creation, but I think it’s only an enabling factor. Other factors may circle around the sea of social and political flotsam that they swim in today, as well as the barrage of media garbage to which we are all subjected. The result of these circumstances may be a type of selflessness that could significantly affect their creative processes.
So, I’ve begun to work on curricular activities and projects that will tap this collaborative, highly interactive (and volatile) energy.
As always, I welcome your thoughts.
This is such an important topic. We are changing. Technology and a general awareness of the ego-centric, control-driven nature of creative arts systems and practices are igniting a rethinking of basic assumptions. As a writer and director, I welcome this and will be interested in your work. Not only for students, but practicing professionals as well.
on a creative level i feel workshopping this methodology will prove highly useful for the generations to come, as it is in practice today. after seeing a trailer for the film about the creators of Facebook, “The Social Network”, i wonder of the sleeper idea that will allow future generations to shift the business paradigm in such a way to allow them to share the fruits of their idea at satisfactory terms. Sitting on Longbeach yesterday in New York and watching newspaper blow from a beach towel across the sand and into the water, i had to imagine the reaction of onlookers if we were on the Gulf coast where the environment is under threat as opposed to the indifference of the east coast revellers in our functioning ecosystem.
I am seeing the same thing in my “Music Entrepreneurship” course. Students today are more and more reflecting the social and collaborative nature of “creation”, paying little heed to ownership in the more recent traditional sense of “intellectual property” – an attitude this author must struggle with as he endeavors to “re-purpose” his own creative works while preserving their value.
Of course, all human creations are built on previous works and are never ‘ex nihilo’. While our laws are sadly lagging behind the new cut-and-paste realities, our perspectives need to expand to allow our students to generate surprises we never conceived of.
I’ll be experimenting with new approaches as well and look forward (as time allows) to sharing and hearing what we all learn.
I agree that the new generation of students is a different breed. I am a returning college student getting my masters in museum studies and I see this change as a direct result of the entitlement attitude. The fellow students that I have the best experiences with are the driven artist, the driven writer, and the actively creative student who wants to come up with that “great idea” or new philosophy for the global benefit. Life long learning is a foreign concept to this new generation…I am very interested in your research, as education and innovative ideas are two primary areas to focus on for museum sustainability.