My Own Wonderful Idea

This weeks class was an interesting one. We are starting a unit on Maker Spaces (if you don't know what they are, look it up! It's super cool!), and the whole second half of class was spent in small groups trying to invent something totally new that would benefit education. Aside from that guideline, we were given very little instruction. It was seemingly simple: create!

The idea was cool. The implementation was frustrating. On one hand, it was extremely hard to simply come up with a completely unique idea; on another hand, it was even more challenging to try and make this idea come to life with a group. Aside from having people to split up eventual work with, I found that working in this group in particular was a bit stifling for the project. We had lots of cool ideas, but collectively we had a hard time expanding upon the ideas. Frankly, it was hard to get truly creative with a group of people who were bored, cranky, tired, and unfamiliar with each other. Ideas were thrown out... and shot down; everybody was equally at fault. We also did not seem to be seeing eye to eye on the purpose of the group either and that made progress slow. For me personally, a project that originally seemed really interesting became somewhat stressful, and I left the classroom feeling like what we had come up with wasn't good enough. It may have just been the day, but it will be interesting to see if my group can come together cohesively on this.

I would have preferred to work on the project alone, because that is just how I work best oftentimes. If it had been just me, I would have been able to pick the topic that I had the most ideas about and been able to run with it. I would have been able to make it fit into my interpretation of the project with my preferences for what the invention would do/ look like. I understand the genius behind having this be a group project, but it is not jiving with me for some reason this time. Further thought is required for how to get the creative juices flowing as a group.

Aside from that, I am terribly excited for this unit! I have done some research on Maker Spaces, and to be able to play with some of the cool things that these spaces include is awesome. I will be keeping you well updated on the banana keyboards and the likes, just so long as you don't mind my fan-girling!