Agenda 1 for Class Meeting on January 10

Last updated: 1/10/03
Link back to course Welcome

Agenda 1 for Creativity Class Meeting on January 10

Personal introductions and pictures for the course web site.
1. This meeting is about ISP 5660 and AGS 3340 for Winter semester 2003, Creativity: Building the New
2. My name is David Bowen. My contact information, and the course web site, is listed on the course welcome page and on the syllabus.
3. General plan for this meeting:
  1. Creativity as a course topic
  2. Course syllabus - assignments and other requirements
  3. Working online - web site, online discussion and sending assignments back and forth
  4. Getting help, whether technical or content-related
What is creativity
1. A start: something new that solves a problem or meets a need. This will do to get started, but I will tear it to pieces during a later class.
2. Other words, related words - discussion
3. Changing the culture. What is culture? Often this means "high culture" or "artistic culture" such as symphonies, operas, poetry and literature, and so on. What is meant here is instead the anthropological meaning which, like creativity itself, is not precisely defined, but generally "the customs, civilization and achievements of a particular time or people" (The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus, 1996) including food and its preparation, clothing and style, social and legal customs such as courts and marriage, education and training, the general assumptions of the society such as, "a painting is a representation of our inner state of mind," and so on.
Some theoretical questions about Creativity. These will be important throughout the course. You will often come across conflicting answers. I think you will find that Creativity is not a well-defined field with a strong consensus. In such a situation, I think the goal of the course must be for you to become aware of the range of thought, to recognize where a given opinion fits within the range. Also, there are many different types of studies, and you should try to understand their strengths and weaknesses.
1. Many of us have a cultural assumption of "heroic creativity" - that the creative person is rejected, a loner, that s/he overcomes odds and forces their creativity against the experts, often with the solid support of the general public. How correct is this assumption?
2. What about Creativity is studied?
  1. The creative product or thing - a piece of music, a painting (artifact)
  2. The creative person who created the artifact
    1. Characteristics
    2. Childhood and background
    3. Motivation
  3. The creative process that the person used to create the artifact
  4. The surrounding society and/or the colleagues of the Creative individual
3. Is Creativity a yes/no thing, or are some products less creative and others more so - is there, say, a scale of 1 to 10?
4. Are there measurable characteristics that are shared by all creative people, for example intelligence or being able to conceive of many ways to answer a question? If such characteristics exist, can people be trained in them, and does this increase their creativity? Do the most creative people score the highest in these characteristics?
  1. (Gardner, Chpt 2)
  2. Is there an objective standard which we can apply to say that this pice of work is creative, or that person is creative?
  3. Hypothetical question. Suppose that you are a reporter on a local newspaper, and you are assigned to write a story on the five most creative artists in Southeastern Michigan? How would you carry out this assignment?
5. Can Creativity exist in all fields of endeavor, or are some areas not Creative? Is Creativity the same in all fields in which it exists, or does it differ? Are there personal differences? (analytic Vs generative)
6. Has Creativity occurred at the same rate throughout history, or has it waxed and waned?
7. Is there a dark side to Creativity? Is disease or disability associated with Creativity?
  1. ADHD or ADD. Two (at least aspects to creativity:
    1. People with these conditions often have lots of novel ideas, and some claim that this makes them creative. Creative people tend to focus their new ideas, though.
    2. What about assessing or evaluating these ideas? This requires focus, discipline and knowledge.
  2. Addiction
  3. Deformity
  4. Isolation
8. Can anybody be Creative? You will read the answer "yes" in many places, and see cases to demonstrate that "yes' is probably the correct answer. Is everyone creative? This is a different question, and while not everyone agrees, the most common answer is "no."
9. Can Creativity exist in everyday life?
  1. Cooking or cuisine
  2. Crafts such as quilting
  3. Dealing with poverty
10. Is there a strong or wide consensus about who is or is not Creative, or is it all just individual opinions? Can we make objective judgments about whether or not someone is/was creative? (in practice, people disagree, and also no one person has the background to make judgments across the full range of human endeavor)
11. Does all Creativity work like Poincaré's experience, or are there other modes?
Who is this person up front?
1. In me, you have an Instructor who is a fairly hard-nosed scientist (Physics). This means that, for me, experiments or data beat plain opinion, including yours and including mine, every time. Several of the readings are based on experiments.
  1. Corporate Creativity is based on a series of case studies, many of which are reported in the book.
  2. Creativity is based on a series of approximately 100 in-depth uniform interview studies of 100 elderly by living creative people. It also cites the history of general research in the field of creativity.
  3. Creating Minds is based on (and primarily consists of) seven uniform (same researcher, same approach) in-depth case studies of highly creative people from the first half of the twentieth century. It also cites the history of general research in the field of creativity.
  4. Flow (AGS 3340) is based on an Experience Sampling Method that was applied across geographic region, social and economic position, age and gender.
  5. Several other experimental studies, primarily on the distribution of creativity over geographic region and time, and on the mostly negative consequences that extrinsic or external motivation has on creativity, will be presented via lecture and web pages.
2. As far as I am concerned, again, data ends speculation and opinion about the direct measurements. That is, many things about creativity are known. For example, Teresa Amabile's experiments on the mostly negative consequences that extrinsic motivation has for creativity, for me, end speculation about these consequences. It is still, as always, possible to question whether the type of experiment is valid, or whether it demonstrates the conclusions, or to cite experiments that conflict with the ones presented.
Here is a working hypothesis about creativity. Do not treat this as authoritative.
1. Creativity involves someone who freely chooses to focus on a situation or discipline. They continue working, dividing and subdividing the situation, analyzing it, building detail upon detail. Those around this person are likely to think him/her obsessive.
2. This person follows through on his/her interest and is active in the area, interested in talking and comparing notes with others in that area. They innovate, although their work may be innovative only within a restricted circle. The more involved they are, the larger the circle of people for whom their work must be new.
3. Childhood interests and "near" role models played an important part. From my readings, it seems to be important that the child have the experience that if s/he has an interest they take it seriously, pursue it in more detail, especially as a subject of imagining, that they elaborate on it, and that the have an accessible role model. Activity and work in the are of the interest need to be pursued.
4. Important aspects of creativity occur in the subconscious mind, but exactly what happens in the subconscious is not clear. However, this may be the reason why intrinsic motivation is important; that is, your subconscious mind may not be influenced by extrinsic factors, but only by your true intrinsic interests.
5. One of the implications of this picture is that it is impossible to tell whether or not a contemporary person is highly creative. We simply won't know the extent of their influence on the field and the culture until we can see the field develop over time.
The scope of Creativity
1. Affects how long the effects will last, and the number of people it will affect
2. Range or scope
  1. Personal (flow, or micro c). No external product.
  2. Family (little c). May involve clothes, carpentry, meals.
  3. Regional/National
  4. International
  5. Civilization (Big C - changing the culture)
3. As the range or scope gets wider, and extends across time, of necessity an external creative product (or several, or many) is/are required. This is simply a practical requirement.
My goals for the course
1. Theoretical
  1. Understanding of Creativity and its relatives, how the modern study of Creativity started, and how it has changed
  2. Knowledge about specific creative individuals
  3. Individual focus on an aspect of Creativity -- fourth text and term paper
  4. Having an opportunity (but not a requirement) to try something new
2. Applications (depend on individual interests)
  1. How to be (more) creative in our individual lives
    1. at work -- being an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur
    2. outside of work
  2. How to manage or supervise for Creativity (innovation)
  3. How to encourage Creativity in our children
Syllabus (handout)
How the course works:
1. Normal textbooks, essays, tests
2. Pages on the course web site for handouts and lecture material
3. Class discussion on a web-based computer conference
4. Turning in work and getting it back as email attachments - essays for ISP 5660 and Quizzes and Exams for AGS 3340
Taking an online course (or at least this one). It is not self study, unless you make it that way by hiding from me. Staying involved:
1. Contact Instructor for help - technical, computer, software, writing, posting, reading, writing etc. Telephone, email, appointment, before/after class, conference, weekly course reports.
2. Weekly emails from me. Course ListServ well be crtvyw03@lists.wayne.edu - send an email to the ListServ and it will be distributed to the class and me.
3. Weekly course reports from you.
4. Computer conference.
5. Classes.
Software
1. World Wide Web access for the course web site and computer conferencing/chat. Either Netscape Navigator (version 2.0 or higher), Netscape Communicator (any version) or Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 3.0 or higher) will do. These are all examples of Web Browsers. During this class meeting we will use Netscape Navigator, but all Web Browsers basically work alike, especially inside the Browser window.
2. Email. Email programs are not installed on campus because of security concerns. Consequently, it is difficult to use University laboratory computers for email attachments, so we will not be going over that during this class meeting. Also, the different email programs are too different for a lab session to be useful. All versions of Netscape after version 3 have an "Attach" button in the email composition window, when you are typing out an email message. The WSU webmail interface for your WSU email account (webmail.wayne.edu) does not have a paper clip icon, but the email composition window does have a Browse button to find the file you want to attach, and an Attach button to actually attach the file you have just found. What email programs are you using? I can also help you one-to-one, but do not delay trying it.
  1. To find out what program you are using, in Windows:
    1. Click on the "Help" menu item up near the top of the screen. A menu or list of sub-choices will drop down.
    2. On the list of sub-choices, click on the "About ..." item at or near the bottom of the list. A box appears listing the name and version number of the software.
Tour of course web site at http://www.cll.wayne.edu/isp/drbowen/crtvyw03
1. Syllabus for ISP 5660 / AGS 3340 for both three- and four-credit versions.
2. Course information form -- fill this out by next week
3. Weekly course reports
4. Web pages assigned as reading [Creativity Is... (crtvyw03/crtvyw03)]
Registering for the course computer conference
1. You are going to first create an account on the computer conferencing system - assign yourself a User Name and Password. You can make these up - they can be the same as, or different than, those for any other computer system. As usual, your User Name will be public and your Password will be private.
  1. How to go in undercover - as a demonstration, I will set up an account for Igor Stravisnky (one of the people in Creating Minds) User Name istravisnky Password igor
2. Go to the course web site at http://www.cll.wayne.edu/isp/drbowen/crtvyw03 - you should bookmark this (Netscape) or create a favorite (Internet Explorer)
3. Click on "Link to computer conference"
4. Type in the User Name and Password that you have chosen for yourself, then click OK or tap the "Enter" key
5. Choose to enter as a new user (but if you ever see this dialog again, shut down your browser and start over)
6. Re-enter your User Name and Password, and give your email address, and a signature down at the bottom, then click the button
7. You do not need the User Number on the confirmation page
Break
1. You fill out the Course Information form on the course web site
2. I will add you to the course computer conference and send an opening message
3. Close down your web browser
Using the course computer conference
1. Start your web browser and go the computer conferencing system and sign in
2. Opening screen - list of new messages, list of all messages
  1. Getting a message, from new messages or from all messages, onto the right panel
3. Posting a new message or reply/quote for an old one
4. Problem if Internet connection goes down - just reconnect
5. Asynchronous conversation with time lags in between
  1. Provide context for reader
    1. Change the title for a reply
    2. Use Reply/Quote and edit the original message
  2. Another student may reply before I do, and if I agree with the reply, I will probably just say nothing.
6. Online citizenship - helping others, not making it personal (not "you are wrong" but "here is what I think"), not getting provoked, keeping the conference organized
Will you like an online course?
1. Some people like online courses, some do not. As long as you are here, why not enjoy it? For people who like online courses, what is the #1 thing they like?