Creative Discovery: A Beginner's Map

This past year (while on sabbatical) I studied an additional subfield of anthropology and gamification. My goal was (and still is)  to teach a new-to-me course and, more importantly, to design more innovative learning opportunities to better engage students -- and myself. At the end of my sabbatical year I  found myself overwhelmed with new ideas, resulting in creative paralysis. How serendipitous to come across the listing of a Canvas MOOC focusing on creativity for teachers: 5 Habits for Highly Creative Teachers! #create5

As shown in the map below, the past five weeks I have embarked on a journey that challenged me to create with online tools, to risk failure, and to deeply reflect on my attitudes toward curiosity and creativity. Other course participants experienced parallel journeys and it was not uncommon for our pathways to intersect in interesting and insightful ways.

The first week of the journey I explored my own habits of curiosity -- an important task for a teacher who wants to inspire curiosity in students! The following week I learned how ideas are used and reused in the 21st Century using online technologies. I practiced using various online tools including Haiku Deck, Zeega, Pinterest, and Wordle, and have noted others that I would like to try out -- or at the very least offer to students as ways of practicing anthropological ideas as well as engaging with one another.

At the journey midpoint I learned how to become a constructive member of a "tribe," and experienced the amazing synergy that resulted: course participants were supported and encouraged to build upon the ideas expressed by one another which ultimately led to fun and exciting new creations.

The penultimate step of the journey was exploring "positive failure," which was initially mind-boggling for me and which proved to be another important step in my journey. In the past I avoided things I did not think I could do well: my thinking had been why do something that I cannot do perfectly? It's quite obvious to me now that avoiding failure led to my creative paralysis. Yikes! The attitude I had learned as a child was not keeping me safe at all: it was keeping me frightened!

This final week of the journey focuses on reflection and celebration. Engaging in the sometimes frustrating and always interesting learning opportunities in this MOOC has kept me moving forward and has empowered me to forge a new path, one that bypasses creative paralysis and anticipates future creative intersections. As I review my journey and see the "Yes, and . . ." sticky note attached to my physical copy of the map, I wholeheartedly celebrate what I have learned and those with whom I have engaged in this journey. Many thanks to each you!