The idea SketchPad

Why?

The method enables the students, working individually, to generate, sketch and visualize new ideas, while keeping the advantage of the collective input of participants. This is a strong creativity tool in the divergent phase as it allows visual exploration of ideas.

How?

The teacher makes sure that all the students are equipped with a large sheet of paper, pencils in various colours and markers. The teacher asks the students to place their favourite idea in the middle of the paper, and then to, freely, draw or write anything (e.g. stories, people, perspectives, topics, things, or other ideas etc.) that comes into their mind. After a few minutes, the students pass the paper on to someone else in their group or class, who continues the process.

Tips

Instead of their favourite idea, the students place their worst or most crazy idea as the starting point for further idea generation. This enables the students to explore more radically innovative ideas.

Literature

Van der Lugt, R. (2002). Brainsketching and How it Differs from Brainstorming. Creativity and Innovation Management, 11(1), 43-54.