Synectics & Creativity Ted Kahn

Towards a Creative Thinking & Innovation Pavilion for a Virtual Museum of the Future: Synectics, “Everywhere,” and …? NMC Creativity Symposium in Second Life Ted M. Kahn, Ph.D. DesignWorlds for Learning, Inc. & DesignWorlds for College NMC Fellow © 2007 by DesignWorlds for Learning, Inc .

What is DesignWorlds?

10-year old company dedicated to developing and supporting new kinds of collaborative, creative learning & knowledge-making communities

Web-based Lifelong Learning Collaboratories

DesignWorlds for College, Grad School and Careers

“ Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of the imagination” —John Dewey “ Imagination is more important than knowledge.” —Albert Einstein “ Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”—John Lennon

“ The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” Dr. Alan Kay, visionary creator of the first personal computer (Xerox PARC)

Why Man Creates…

Creativity Research: 1950’s: J.P. Guilford (USC) 120 Different Intellectual Skills

The Act of Creation Arthur Koestler:

The Act of Creation Arthur Koestler: “ Bissociation”

Creativity Research: 1960’s Creative Personality and Development of Creative Thinking in Education • Institute for Personality Assessment & Research (Psychology Dept., U.C. Berkeley)--funded by Carnegie Corporation • Development of Creative Thinking Curricular Products for K-12 (e.g, Edward de Bono, Covington, Crutchfield, et al.) • Creative Thinking Tests (e.g, Paul Torrance)

Creativity: 1970’s • Computer models/simulation of creative thinking and problem-solving (e.g., Newell & Simon’s General Problem-Solver (GPS) program • Birth of Cognitive Science--and dominance of Information Processing Models of all kinds of thinking and cognitive tasks

Creativity: 1980’s • Intrinsic Motivation and social psychology of creativity (Teresa Amabile, now at Harvard Business School) • Creative expression tools and explorations using personal computers

Creativity: 1990’s • Creativity and Creative Thinking are situated activities : Social, Temporal and Environmental (IRL/Lave & Wenger: Situated Learning and Cognition; “Communities of Practice”) • Systems views of Creativity and “Flow”: Interactions between Knowledge Domains and Social Practices (Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi)

Most everyday “real world” learning and professional development are social , informal , and situated activities

Synectics W. J. J. Gordon & Tony Poze (1940’s - 1970’s)

Synectics Analogies: Making the Strange Familiar and Making the Familiar Strange • Direct Analogies • Personal/Fantasy Analogies • “ Compressed Conflict” or ”Book Title” (e.g., oxymoron phrases, such as “deafening silence”)

Making the Familiar Strange…

Synectics Groups: The Process (George Prince)

Everywhere (Moshe D. Caspi, 1977) • Different spaces have different qualities to develop and stimulate thinking and creative self-education: • Fantasy Room • Common Sense Room • Room of digging into the past • Room of projecting into the future • Connections/analogy room • etc..

Towards a Virtual Museum of the Future A Futures Community-based learning & knowledge garden — co-designed and maintained by teens & college students