{"id":4900,"date":"2016-09-16T15:30:05","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T15:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/impedagogy.com\/wp\/?p=4900"},"modified":"2016-09-16T15:36:56","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T15:36:56","slug":"crowdsourcing-ideas-in-the-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/impedagogy.com\/wp\/blog\/2016\/09\/16\/crowdsourcing-ideas-in-the-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"Crowdsourcing Ideas in the Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I start every semester with some kind of creativity “pump primers”. This year I started with summarizing Steven Johnson’s 2012 Wall Street Journal article, “The Genius of the Tinkerer”<\/a>. (I put it on NowComment<\/a> for my most adventurous students.)<\/p>\n

I followed that up with James Altucher’s “The Ultimate Guide for Becoming an Idea Machine”<\/a>. \u00a0I wanted students to follow his advice generally and specifically. \u00a0Generally, because it is always good to tap into his way of generating ideas. Specifically, because I want them to apply these creative principles to their research question.<\/p>\n

I always lead the way in the class with my research question. This year I am asking, “How can my wife and I\u00a0have a two week vacation from the farm?” \u00a0I am quite passionate about finding an answer to this very personal question. \u00a0Ken Macrorie calls these “I-Search” questions. \u00a0His book,\u00a0The I-Search Paper<\/strong><\/em><\/a>,\u00a0is out of print but I still use it, pre-Internet sensibilities and all.<\/p>\n

I asked my students to use Altucher’s machine method to help me come up with ideas as a class. \u00a0I wrote down their suggestions and then recorded them (see\u00a0embedded videos\u00a0below). \u00a0They will become part of the narrative I will tell as I re-tell for my readers the story of how I attempted to answer my I-Search question. \u00a0I will work on this over the course of an entire semester. \u00a0They will work on their questions as well.<\/p>\n

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