Übercrawl

Category: 5199.3

This course examines theories of creativity, innovation and inventions to explore how the different concepts and theories may influence one another in developing an inventor mind.

The course begins by investigating the potential relation and conceptual flow between curiosity, inquiry, discovery, creativity, inventions, and innovation, and then identifying the mental representations formed within those processes.

  • 10: Design → Delivery

    10: Design → Delivery

    For the first time in my attenuated life, I am delivering a course in 

    Digital Life Skills
    • 3 classes (every November Friday afternoon)
    • 3 hours each
    • 3 students at each of 5 tables.

    I will deliver the curriculum via our website, diglit.cwelms.org, designed for a smart phone, class assignments posted to Padlet, for collective feedback. In the physical classroom, a projector will beam to a 10′ x 25′ wall, where our 15 students can comfortably view their work.

    At our last meeting, I was wisely advised to identify which chunks I already have on hand, and which I haven’t. Two meetings ago, I realized I didn’t have any “arcs” running through my three classes. I chose to design a phone video shoot, expressing comedic relief to banal frustrations we all experience when dealing with government bureaucracy, across the 3 classes.

    The development of the first class I definitely have locked in, most of the second. This weekend I will produce all of the materials needed for them.

    I’ve also more-or-less worked out another arc: an iterative process for students to hone various digital skills throughout the themes of the several classes.

    Week #1

    Iterate x on [MOOC class, job posting, NewEgg computer]

    1. Imagine something in x you have interest in.
    2. Translate your interests into “drop down” categories on an x website.
    3. Make queries/research to explore your interest.
    4. /Padlet your findings.

    Week #2

    Iterate array x on [Child Care, Voter Registration, Social Security, NY State of Health, NYC mycity, library card, …]

    1. Imagine something in x that you want to use to improve your quality of life (“QoL”).
    2. Translate QoL into a list of personal data you need to complete x‘s online forms.
    3. /text and /Padlet your list.

    These iterations are hardly creative, except when compared to existing “Digital Life Skills” programs. For example, in an apartment a few blocks from where I live, a “Digital Life Skills” program is delivered every year. A cursory look reveals its didactivism. Surely, I can enhance delivery of needed skills my community desires, with my project in this class.

    The Padlet function is initiated when a student takes a picture of a laptop screen displaying a product from an above iteration, posted to a Padlet, answering some queries as well. The posts will be arranged and projected to the 10′ x 25′ wall for collective feedback.

    The text function is an heuristic: store information on your phone that is _not_ a snapshot. Download an app that you can

    1. open a file
    2. type information
    3. save and retrieve

    The third class I’ve struggled with for months now. I know it has to do with how you can/want/should/ought to situate yourself online. My biggest problem is knowing I am an extreme outlier concerning social media et.al.

    For example, discussing The Algorithm would be an appropriate topic, but it’s difficult for me to design an activity without revealing my Luddite intentions, that we should get off platforms entirely, and return to the telnet tcp/ip days.

    And how to make a lesson about proper uses of social media a creative endeavor, preferably using the iterative process described above?

  • 5: Our minds, when inventing?

    5: Our minds, when inventing?

    My Father’s Patents
    My Father’s Patents

    My father ran R&D at Armstrong World Industries for decades, until a couple of years after the “quarterly earnings report” culture set in. After three reorganizations, he resigned before following orders and doing a fourth.
    .

    My mother died last year. I spent this past summer throwing out even more weight than the kitchen sink. (🙌I cleared out half the house!) Right now, my father’s patents are next to his fraternity framed pictures, his bowling team league trophy, his bar lamp and his father’s carpentry tools.
    .
    He had a B.S. degree in Chemistry, me in Chemical Engineering. But our degrees feel different than his patents. They feel like talismans.

    Factors
    List some factors that may have contributed to [my father’s] development as an inventor

    .
    Earthiness

    Manipulator

    Renegade
    .

    Reflection

    The Chetty article makes me wonder where my own inventfulness stems. My father never brought me to his office, very rarely talked about Armstrong, and when he did it was mostly about fellow employees or corporate culture. Even though he has boxes of books (dare I throw them out?) on Industrial Process Management, that topic only came up when he was criticizing how our country’s innovation culture began being sacrificed in the 1980s.
    .
    When I’m aware that I might be doing something innovative, I sense it first as a visceral, guttural reaction. A feeling of pride, demonstrating my expert craftiness working in the medium.
    Not being dependent on Big Data, Dirty Energy,
    and all the other big words.

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  • 4: Topic Reflection

    4: Topic Reflection

    Q1
    MSTU 5199.3
    Q1: Problem

    What is the problem/topic area/theme for your product/service OR curriculum activity that you find interesting (so far) for your final project?

    Learn More
    Q2
    MSTU 5199.3
    Q2: Interest

    Why is this problem/topic area/theme interesting to you.

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    Q3
    MSTU 5199.3
    Q3: Community

    What is the target user population or students in relation to your product/service OR curriculum activity.

    Learn More
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  • Introduction

    Introduction

    When COVID hit, I had been teaching construction trades math for many years. I knew our “emergency remote” Zoom classes weren’t effective, but I couldn’t tell you why.

    So Fall 2022, I entered the Technology, Media and Learning program, hopefully receiving an Ed.M. in Design of Learning Technologies by 2028.

    Since then, I’ve learned a couple of phrases that align to my learning environment: apprenticeship traditions dating back to the guilds, and even to ancient times:

    Embodied Cognition
    Diffusion of Innovation
    Savvy Start
    Multi-modalities
    Andragogy

    Robert Lewis’ Framework for MSTU 5199.003