Archive for May 23rd, 2012

In extension to the entry titled “Unitaskers Bad, Multitaskers Good,” I am thinking that a bucket/pail might be a great object to ponder multitasking. I have several around the house and in the garden.

One approach would be to actually bring one or more pails in. We could do the brainstorming exercise (a) with no visual identification of the object (i.e., just tell them it’s a pail), (b) with an image on a screen or piece of paper (i.e., no 3-d impression), (c) with a pail sitting at the front of the room (i.e., observe from a distance, or (d) actually have participants play with one first or during.

I am also thinking to make this an experiment where we also develop a methodology and collect data for analysis.

We would give the same exercise to individuals not in the workshop to create a reference set of ideas for usage. The reference set would be longitudinal in age, and these references would be used to compare with the results from workshop participants.

Briefly, the idea is a PostIt type exercise where participants brainstorm changes to the rules at school. Simple targets may be the timetable (including start and end times, lunch breaks, etc) and dress code. How about rearranging the seating style in a classroom (oftentimes in rows)? I am sure we could also examine one or two sets of school guidelines to come up with more. This exercise hopefully mixes feasibility with fantasy, and reality with possibility.