Blank Screen CreativityUnleashing the creative process, one blank screen at a time.

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I’m Bernie GoldbachLimerick School of Art and Design

I teach third level creative students how to communicate through Media Writing, Public Relations, Social Media and Applied Communications in a BSc degree programme.

I need to ensure our graduates can populate digital channels with their creative work.

I need to inculcate a collaborative spirit to ensure our graduates can work with designers, art directors, copywriters, front end developers, programmers, marketers, and analysts.

Our graduates need to surmount blank screens and be creative.

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The Process

-- My research includes continuous, informal interviews with students.-- Followed ethnographic process recommended by Spradley (1979).-- Digital artifacts (Flickr, Instagram, Google Plus, Twitter, Audioboo) assisted the data collection process.

Things I’ve done to investigate blank screen creativity.

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The Creative Experience

-- Borrows from Jason Theodor’s Creative Method and System.-- Learners bring their own devices.-- Teachers identify creative oases.-- An effective process shares eureka moments

Things worth sharing

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Learners arrive in a copy-and-paste modeStudents who actually “engaged in writing assignments... exhibited higher levels of critical thinking and overall understanding of their topic...“

Thompsett and Ahluwalia, 2010

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What promotes creativity is a questioning classroom.

Ask unusual and challenging questions.

Value diversity.

Robert Fisher, 2006

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 A transformation has occurred. We have moved from "atom-based" economy, and towards one focused around the creation, manipulation, communication and storage of electronic binary digits or "bits".

Nicholas Negroponte, 2000

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 Stress is part of the landscape with Kids Living and Learning with New Media.

Mizuko Ito, 2009

Jason Theodor’s Creative Method

It’s about action, connection and deviation.

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The Creative Method

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Action

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Start simple.Draft a response.Record 90 second audio.

Connection

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Communities emerge.Sharing happens.

Connection

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Using Audioboo to easily aggregate shareable creative work.

Deviation

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New pathways lead to unexpected results.

Improving Focus

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Essential Elements of Focus

-- Capture-- Catalogue-- Review

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Capture

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The tool must always be in your pocket or purse.

CatalogueAuto-file in a searchable stash.

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CatalogueLeverage searchable community artifacts.

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ReviewCross-reference your own media objects.

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Creative CollaborationMeeting creative people in Google Hangouts.

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Creative CollaborationMeeting creative people in Google Hangouts.

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Failing Collaboration

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“Most collaborations fail. But we don’t hear about them.”

Ewan McIntosh, LIN 2012

Learning Creatively

Students prefer to learn creatively by exploring, questioning, experimenting, manipulating, listening, and testing.

Torrance and Safter (1990)

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Action

It’s about doing.

It is the act of creating.

It is about learning how to fail well.

It is a journey of 10,000 steps.

Jason Theodor (2010)

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Active Listening

It’s more than just paying attention.

Robertson K (2005)

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Facilitating

The weakest of us—the Empaths, the Crazies, and the Dreamers—need to break our inertia and build up momentum.

Theodor J (2010)

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Production

We extract significant value when producing shared reflective documents.

Google Docs used in public and private modes.

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Critique

(There is) an emerging consensus that the most engaged and active forms of learning with digital media happen in youth-driven settings.

Mizuko Ito, 2009

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ConclusionUse the creative method to unlock blank screens.

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Circle MeOr follow me @topgold.

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Happy Creating!

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Bgoldbach AT yahoo.comwww.insideview.ie