Learning Futures on I.C.E. - Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship

At the 2014 HOW conference, Debbie Millman, host of the excellent interview show Design Matters and a remarkable mind, sat down with the prolific Seth Godin to discuss courage, anxiety, change, creative integrity, and why he got thrown out of Milton Glaser’s class. She used an unusual book of Godin’s as the springboard for their wide-ranging conversation: V is for Vulnerable: Life Outside the Comfort Zone (public library) — an alphabet book for grownups illustrated by Hugh MacLeod with a serious and rather urgent message about what it means and what it takes to dream, to live with joy, to find our purpose and do fulfilling work.

I had the pleasure of seeing and recording the conversation — transcribed highlights below.

Prof Brungs pointed out that innovation is more than just research; it’s incremental and collaborative in nature and is in itself, a rather broad concept. Most importantly, what lies at the heart of innovation is people, not technology.

“It requires our people to have boundaries-crossing skills in design-thinking and problem-solving, etc. We need to rethink the skills that people need, and how they will acquire them. This will revolutionise our teaching approach,” he said.

Synopsis
Take a slightly broader view and it becomes clear that innovation today goes far beyond research labs, Silicon Valley pitch meetings and large corporate initiatives. We all have something to offer and can add to the world’s knowledge in a way that may differ in degree, but not in kind, to the giants of the past.
On December 9th, 1968, a research project funded by the US Department of Defense launched a revolution. The focus was not a Cold War adversary or even a resource rich banana republic, but rather to “augment human intellect” and the man driving it was not a general, but a mild mannered engineer named Douglas Engelbart.

His presentation that day would be so consequential that it is now called The Mother of All Demos. Two of those in attendance, Bob Taylor and Alan Kay would go on to develop Engelbart’s ideas into the Alto, the first truly personal computer. Later, Steve Jobs would take many elements of the Alto to create the Macintosh.

Want to challenge assumptions? Follow the lead of Microsoft, MIT, and others, and ask more questions, writes author Warren Berger.

How do you go about creating a space to support collaboration, creative problem-solving and innovation? Two institutions share their experiences.

In the report ‘New Vision for Education: Fostering Social and Emotional Learning through Technology', the World Economic Forum explores how "character qualities" such as collaboration, communication and critical thinking will equip students to succeed in the swiftly evolving digital economy.

To thrive in the 21st century, students need more than traditional academic learning. They must be adept at collaboration, communication and problem-solving, which are some of the skills developed through social and emotional learning (SEL).

In 2015, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published the report New Vision for Education: Unlocking the Potential of Technology that focused on the pressing issue of the 21st-century skills gap and ways to address it through technology. In that report, WEF defined a set of 16 crucial proficiencies for education. Of those skills, 10 were labelled either “competencies” or “character qualities”. Competencies are the means by which students approach complex challenges; they include collaboration, communication and critical thinking and problem-solving. Character qualities are the ways in which students approach their changing environment; they include curiosity, adaptability and social and cultural awareness.

We are developing a capability framework  designed to help organisations implement and integrate a creative project, be it games, gamification, playful experiences or a digital product service. Our study of leading innovators have revealed 50 capability indicators essential to the business transformation process, and we’re just turning that research into easy to use tools for you and your team.

The report urges governments to remove barriers to the spread of innovation, deploy digital technologies to deliver services, and introduce new regulations only where there is strong evidence they are needed. The recommendations, though high-level, are sensible.

The Productivity Commission hews close to its standard line that governments often get in the way of innovation. It recommends that governments only regulate to reduce risks where the evidence supports it, and that they experiment with temporary regulations for innovative business models. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission is already doing this for financial firms.

Digital disruption has the potential to threaten 40 per cent of jobs over the next 10 to 15 years as automation and machine learning shake up the economy, according to a Productivity Commission report released today.

Join Chloe Czerwiec (Innovation Librarian, Centre for Education Futures) and investigate how to be an informed consumer of digital information and share information with others mediated by technology.

MIT already has a lot of great makerspace (something like 130,000 square feet!), including for 3D printing, CNC milling, laser cutting and other high-tech toys. They also have the classic machine-shop tools, and even a ceramics lab, glassblowing facilities, and an open foundry. But not all labs are open to all students. Many are restricted to certain majors, and many others are quite specialized or purpose-built. So MIT is leveling the playing field. Starting in fall 2016, every MIT freshman will get an open invitation to the new Project Manus makerspace: the MakerLodge. “These programs are designed to welcome and empower the next generation of inventors and innovators,” says Martin Culpepper, MIT’s “Maker Czar.”