Are You a Killer? Or Are You Stuck in a Trap?

Week #6- February 20th, 2014: Attended

I actually experienced some of these Innovation Killers and Traps in our group meetings while working of the first team assignment. Being a creative studies minor, I have had training on how to better construct and act in a group in order to foster a more creative and encouraging atmosphere. After working with the members of my group, I quickly realized that many of them did not. 
The second half of the lecture on the business model was very understandable, but i feel will be hard to complete when approaching our upcoming projects. I look forward to the challenge. 

O.L.M.
Creativity - Producing any new and original idea,design, thought, combination, or product, despite if it is useful or interesting.
This means that almost anything can be creative despite what others may think. This PomPom Rug shows creativity.

Innovation- altering an old creation, idea, design, ect. to make it new 
This means that any spin off idea is innovative.


 Design- the way something is contructed

Is it a Fit?: Team Talk

Week #5- February 13th, 2014: Attended

So, this was a long trying week not only because of classes, but due to other uncontrollable life events. This week I fought a sinus infection onset by seasonal allergies for which I visited Beutel for before going to this lecture and I spent Valentine's Day at Scott&White for unrelated health problems. Despite this circumstances a managed to not only attend this weeks lecture. but also to complete the first team assignment, attend a career fair, and plan a retreat. The highlight of this week was quitting my job, which will give me more free time to focus on school and my organizations. 

My major focus this week, concerning this course, way obviously meeting with my group to complete the group project. The first meeting ran fairly smoothly, and I feel that I will have to play the role as  team leader. The other members have slow been  standing out in specific roles but, I look forward to seeing if they change over the next few weeks. This weeks lesson over groups dynamics, norms, and roles was again a refresher lesson to me.  

Oh My! You're Too Close!

Week #4- February 6th, 2014: Attended

I really enjoyed this weeks' guest speaker Dr. Hill. His lecture on personal space, how it is interpreted by different cultures, and how it effects certain situations was not only informative, but also captivating. The videos displayed at the start of class were a creative way to introduce the subject of his lecture. The section over the different hand signals that one shouldn't use was very interesting. By having studied abroad in Italy in spring 2013, I knew about a few of those, but others were new to my knowledge. I feel that this would make a great lecture for an interpersonal communication class also. Some of the concepts learned today would be fun to use to manipulate others in an evil genius type of way. I also meet up with my team for the first time this week. It seems like everyone is quite nice. Being a communication major and creative studies minor, I've had the chance to focus on the study of group dynamics, so I am looking forward to see what role each person on our team will play. 

O.L.M. Reflection

I think that I would have to hire someone to patent an idea for me because they seem like a lot of work to do and very expensive. 

Suggested Reading: The Universal Spider

This article, written by Peter Llyod touches on the idea of a child's affinity to animals and their creative approach to novel challenges during their childhood. I think that his thought of channeling this imaginative spirit to address current issues maybe a sound concept metaphorically. Pretending that I am an elephant looking for a job probably won't help me to find a job, but metaphorically being the elephant in the room in a positive way may. I feel that this is a great idea when trying to look at new approaches to problems.

Suggested Reading: Dream vs. Reality

This article by Peter Llyod is an interesting concept. I, as a vivid dreamer, have experienced the occurrence of having a dream within a dream before and have woken myself up in a dream thinking i was waking up in real life. I do agree that dreams can be compared to creativity due to their randomness, and limitless possibilities. The idea that life as we know my also be a dream is in my opinion a far stretched idea, and most likely untrue.

Do You Trust Your Mind?

Week#3- January 30th, 2014: Not Attended 

So I didn't attend class this week. I attempt to go but I don't think it was meant to be. I drove to campus, like I do every Thursday, and when I got close to the Central Campus parking garage this is what I saw.

A long line of cars waiting to get into the same garage. Class was going to start in about seven minutes, and the line wasn't moving so I decided to cut my losses and headed to HEB instead. At HEB i saw these.

I love tulips! They're my favorite flower!

Any who, I watched the recording of the live lecture once it was posted to eCampus, and I wish I would've been in class that day! I thought the idea of dancing on your brain was an interesting metaphor for provoking imagination. All of the mind tricks were very intriguing , and now I'm beginning to build a slight level of distrust of how my mind interprets what my eyes take in visually. I find it slightly scary that we can play tricks on ourselves so easily. Another concept that I found scary in the lesson is the truth of how technology is so easily replacing humans in the workplace. Mentioning work, I completed and turned in the personal branding profile assignment this week. I took a lot longer to create my presentation than I thought it was going to take, but I am pretty satisfied with the final product. The section over Gardner's Seven Intelligences made me look at the work smart in a different light. I would think of many of the intelligences such as body, picture, people, or self smart to be personal traits of talents, but I feel looking at it in this was gives these skills more value.   

 I look forward to attending next week's live lecture and hopefully meeting up with my team soon. 

O.L.M. Reflection
My flow is listening to music such as The Nature of Daylight by Max Richter. I am a polychronic person. My personal space is brightly colored, slightly disorganized to others, and filled with lite background noise. A mental block I have is when giving strict guidelines my brain tends to stop thinking. From this lecture i took away that each people has their own quirky ways to increase their creative process in order to hit the flow mark.