Tony Wagner recently accepted a position as the first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. Prior to this, he was the founder and co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for more than a decade. Tony consults widely to schools, districts, and foundations around the country and internationally. His previous work experience includes twelve years as a high school teacher, K-8 principal, university professor in teacher education, and founding executive director of Educators for Social Responsibility.
about Josh Erwin
Josh is a content creator and strategist with a passion for all things tech, such as the latest gadgets, apps, games and more. Josh loves listening to and playing music and is a big college football fan, especially for his alma mater Georgia Bulldogs. When not writing for PGi, you’ll find him gaming or drumming on Sundays for the Atlanta Falcons.
1) The Way of Improvisation – Dave Morris (11 minutes) – TEDxVictoria
In this very informal talk, Dave Morris shows that improvisation is a process and explains the seven steps of improvising.
In this talk, Steven Johnson explains the types of environments that lead to great creativity and innovation levels. He highlights the importance of “liquid networks,” or places where people with different ideas and backgrounds get together and share their knowledge. Steven Johnson also has a book with the same name (Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation).
Delivered by Richard Turere at age 13, this talk shows an example of creative problem solving. He identified a problem in his community, came up with some ideas, prototyped and tested them, and eventually solved the problem, sharing his solution with others.
In this talk, Marci Segal emphasizes the need to welcome new ideas instead of quickly criticizing them. She proposes we play the “angel’s advocate,” using affirmative judgment when analyzing new options.
Ralph Ammer delivers an illustrated talk showing the importance of thinking in pictures to improve our thinking, creativity, and communication. He highlights some essential lessons for creativity, such as producing many alternatives, deferring judgment, and combining ideas.
In this talk, Tina Seelig presents her Innovation Engine model, explaining its six elements. She also delivers some lessons about creativity, such as the importance of reframing problems, combining ideas, and challenging assumptions. Tina Seelig also has a book called InGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity.
This short talk has an inspiring story behind it. William Kamkwamba talks about how he built a windmill to pump water and irrigate the maize fields during a drought in Malawi, Africa. It is possible to learn more about his story in a book called The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind as well as the movie produced by Netflix of the same name.
Using his experience as an artist and writer, Austin Kleon shows how new ideas are built upon old ones and introduces the concept of the genealogy of ideas. He mentions that nothing is entirely original, but it is actually a remix. Austin Kleon also has a book called Steal Like an Artist.
Tim Harford claims that working simultaneously on more than one project (what he calls “slow-motion multitasking”) can be powerful for creativity and explains why.
This is just a starting list. Feel free to look for more options. I know there are other exciting talks out there, and I would love for you to share them in the comments below. Maybe a good challenge could be to ask students to find a new one to add to the list. Now more than ever, we need to encourage creativity. And it seems that we can do that even sitting on our sofa, eating popcorn, and watching a video!
"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original" - Sir Ken Robinson
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