VIDEO: Left Brain/Right Brain LEGO Commercial

LEGO just released a great commercial that is a perfect illustration of the topic of "play" discussed by IDEO's Tim Brown in the previous entry. The new TV spot shows a father (on the left...left brain) and son (on the right...right brain) working together to build a LEGO house. The father's creation is a perfectly organized left-brain house that, not surprisingly, looks like what most adults think a house should look like. The son's creation, as you'll see in the video, is pure right-brained creativity and "play." He's not "self-editing," as Tim Brown would say, to build something based on what he thinks others will want to see. Rather, he's building something based solely on what he himself can dream up! All of us, at some point, have a natural comfort level with this type of working (or playing)...but somewhere between the age of 5 and 25 it seems to evaporate.

Now, perhaps I'm over-analyzing this a bit (after all, the father's house is pretty cool), but LEGO's message is a clear one...have fun and PLAY! Agreed.

VIDEO: Tim Brown on the Role of "Play" in Innovation

In this talk at the 2008 Serious Play conference, Tim Brown of IDEO (we tend to like them if you can't tell) discusses the role of "play" in innovation and creativity. At first glance it seems obvious that play would be a part of creativity, but as Brown points out, adults (even those in so-called creative fields) tend to self-edit to the point that anything that could conceivably be called "play" is cut short. Using design legends Charles and Ray Eames as examples, he points out the fact that great ideas often come as a result of not simply stopping when a good idea has been developed.

The openness of play, a time for generating and testing ideas without fear of judgement, is an essential part of innovation. That openness, however, has been drained out of many of us by the time we reach adulthood. Kids, Brown states in the video, "are more engaged with open possibilities."

We at DEMO are strong believers in helping kids maintain and even further develop their natural comfort level with creativity so they don't have to go back and attempt to re-learn it as adults...

ARTICLE: IDEO'S Thoughts on 21st Century Learning

http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20090218/ideos-ten-tips-for-creating-a-21st-century-classroom-experience

Originally featured in last February's issues of Metropolis magazine, this article highlights IDEO's 10 core beliefs for learning in the 21st century. While the list is general and sheds little light on how one would actually implement such measures, it is, nonetheless, very thought provoking.

We particularly like the fact that they not only acknowledge the need to strengthen core skills (math, reading, science), but also advocate adding more emphasis on the so-called "soft skills" (creativity, collaboration, communication, empathy, and adaptability). In fact, their 3rd point calls for end of the term "soft skills" altogether. We agree, especially since such skills are now required by many employers. The trick, as they mention in their final point, is figuring out how to measure (and justify the value of) these skills in a world focused on hard numbers and right/wrong answers...