Tuesday 21 April 2009

Mindmap Part 2

The meeting began to notice that some elements of the mindmap that made for effective and interesting links. Lots of people were really interested in the idea of mapping and that then drew us into the idea of exploration, pathways and quests and game play. It seemed that these ideas were really interlinked.

We then had a discussion of outcomes. Tom said there seemed to be a real move to make outcomes explicit in lessons and wondered if that might restrict opportunities for exploration. This then led to the idea of an experience where visitors would walk away with very different personal experiences and outcomes. There was a real interest in the idea of navigation and pathways - the idea that students wanted more opportunities to make choices and travel their own creative journey. There was a desire for people to experience the exhilaration, frustration, uncertainty and excitement of beginning something without being certain of its outcome - an experience that alerted and challenged visitors to think about the impact of creativity on learning.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like a lot was discussed! Sorry I missed the meeting (and the one next week) I have a few more film screenings that I thought were all over :)

Tom

Me said...

I'm also very sorry i missed it i had to clear some confusion with science course work.
Are we still having meetings every Tuesday after school?

matthew said...

it was the start of a very good meeting hopefully next week we could have a few more people there so we can get all of are ideas on this event.

ttgunner said...

it was a very productive meeting to say the least!.i think that we have got a great structure of ideas to show our artist

Jon said...

Can I add my apologies to the list? I was stuck in my Photography exam, witnessing students' exhilaration, fear and anticipation as they set out on learning journeys not knowing where they would end up. Unfortunately, at 5 o'clock some of them still hadn't arrived! I would also like to say a big welcome to Matthew who is now one of only three members of the group who have completed their review of the Liminal exhibition. Big hint!

Soren Hawes said...

It was a really good meeting. I think one of the challenges for the group is how we manage the range of new ideas and projects that tend to spring up in meetings. It's entirely positive that we have so many wonderfully creative ideas and concepts for the project, but we need to find a way of taking the next step. In other words it's great to have such an avalanche of great new ideas, but how we start refining them and giving them coherence.

There is, I think, a bit of uncertainty about how we move on. Are we aiming to meet a fixed deadline for Shine Week or are we putting something in place for further down the line? Are we thinking about projects or events that members of the group will take a lead role in putting together, or are we looking to commission artists and act as commissioners and curators. Also, if we are commissioning the work, do we give an outline of what we had envisaged putting on and examples of our ideas, or would this prevent artists and creative agents having the opportunity to develop their own ideas? Would an artist be there to facilitate our ideas or are they there to respond to our brief? Finally, if we are putting a brief together for artists and creative agents do we need to articulate our vision, audience, purpose, intended outcomes (however open they might be).

I think we are at a really interesting stage. maybe we could use next week's meeting to think about how we take that next step.

Mr. Hawes

Jon said...

I confess to having felt quite anxious during the holidays about our project, wondering if we had enough time left to do something meaningful and concerned about the amount of great ideas being generated. After I had calmed down a bit, I realised that having lots of good ideas wasn't necessarily a bad thing and that we are in the middle of a really interesting process. I think we are so product focused in school that we sometimes miss the really important stuff. Then there are the pressures of time to make and do something that can sometimes stifle the thinking and reflecting that is required to be genuinely creative. However, I do think we've reached a stage now where we have a strong group identity and have collected some interesting thoughts. We may need the help of an outside agent now to help us articulate what we've been doing to a wider audience and I think we should attempt to create a brief for just such a person or persons. We must make sure though that we hang on to incredibly valuable process that we are engaged in, the way we are collaborating together and the research that we are all doing. Perhaps we could also put together some recommendations for the Leadership Team based on our experiences to date? We have an opportunity to influence the way learning happens in this school in the future and I think we should grasp it. The Manifesto for a Creative Tallis was a good, concrete idea which we've begun a couple of times and not completed. Could this be part of our focus in the coming weeks so that we can present it to staff and parents as one of our outcomes at some point soon?