Dear collaborative discussion friends,
This week we are highlighting an activity that helps participants imagine bold possibilities for the future. This activity encourages participants to think about the risks associated with implementing these bold possibilities as well as the risks associated with not taking bold action.
This activity is contributed by Jack Byrd Jr., Professor of Industrial Engineering at West Virginia University and President Emeritus of the Interactivity Foundation, and is one of the many activities in the Creative Collaboration Module.
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This week's activity:
Exploring the risks involved in both taking and not taking bold action
This activity introduces participants to a process that helps them understand that choosing not to take a risk and going with the safer path has risks of its own. Participants begin by sharing initial responses to the prompt. They are then encouraged to individually imagine bolder and more innovative possibilities for the future. Participants then share and discuss their ideas to generate visions for the future. Next, each group shares their vision with the full group and, as a full group, participants generate a list of risks associated with implementing these bold visions, as well as the risks of not doing so. The full group then decides on what path they prefer.
Prepare for the Activity
Organize participants into pairs or small groups (3-5 ppl). Begin by introducing the learning goal of this activity:
Become more aware of the role that risk plays in group imagination and decision-making.
Take Inventory of Initial Reactions
Share a prompt relevant to the group or use the following prompt:
Institutions of higher education need to reimagine their role in society. What do you think the future university should look like?
As a full group, quickly generate initial responses to the prompt. Record the ideas shared on a board, flip chart or shared screen.
Individually Reflect and Write Responses
Next, ask participants to imagine bold possibilities as they silently write down their responses to one or two of the following prompts. Share these prompts on the board or screen:
Emphasis on Time. What would the university look like if it were forced to change in only two years?
Emphasis on Change. How would the university look different if it were required by law to be accessible to all people?
Emphasis on Structure. What if universities took on a corporate partner? How would this affect the role that it plays in society?
Emphasis on Technology. How might your vision of the future university change if all instruction became automated and offered via AI? Or, entirely online? Asynchronously?
Break into Small Groups and Re-imagine the Future
Invite participants to break into small groups (3-5 ppl) and share some of the ideas that they wrote down. Ask them to re-imagine together what a future university looks like. Share the following prompt:
Describe your future university in a series of bullet points.
Come back together as a full group. Invite each group to share their vision of the future university. Discuss:
What are some common themes?
What are the outliers?
Can we agree on a future vision?
Generate a List of Risks
As a full group, invite participants to create a list of the risks associated with implementing this vision of the future university.
Next, ask participants to generate a list of the risks associated with not implementing this bold vision when other universities do implement bold changes.
Have the full group decide on the course of action they prefer based on the risks generated.
Debrief as a Full Group
Come back together as a full group and discuss the following questions:
Where did the boldest ideas come from? Individual reflection? Building on the ideas of others in discussion? Thinking about risks?
How, if at all, did our vision for the future university change by following this process?
How might you use this activity in your daily life?
In addition to these debriefing questions, the full description of Activity 2.4 Taking Risks includes reflection questions, a practice journal prompt, and additional resources to help participants dive deeper.
Dive Deeper by Pairing Activities Together
Both Activity 2.4 and Activity 2.8 Encouraging Bold Imagination help participants imagine boldly and practice taking risks. Start with Activity 2.4 to help them explore the possible benefits of taking risks. Then, use Activity 2.8 to help participants practice imagining a bold future and tracing back the steps that would make such a future a reality, connecting it to the potential in the present.
If you try out this activity, please share with us what you think:
We hope this toolkit activity helps participants understand the role of risk in imagination and decision-making and helps them explore the possible benefits of taking risks.
Upcoming Events
The Interactivity Foundation is organizing the third round of sustained discussions on the topic of Learning & Society. This is an exciting opportunity to engage in discussion with educators about the future of learning in our society. Participants will be awarded a $500 honorarium. Read our previous newsletter to learn more about this discussion series. The deadline to apply is Thursday, November 30th at 5 pm EST. If you are an educator and interested in being part of this discussion series, apply here.
Congratulations to our Collaborative Discussion Coaches who are concluding a certificate program at the end of this fall semester! Please remember to email Shannon Wheatley Hartman at esw@interactivityfoundation.org to receive the link for the Retrospective Participant Survey and to have your participants complete this survey at the conclusion of your program. The results of these surveys will provide valuable feedback to help us better understand the impact of Collaborative Discussion Certificate Programs.
Looking forward to collaborating,
Ritu Thomas & the Collaborative Discussion Team