And even if your ideas don’t see the light of day they may actually inspire and lead to other things.

Or there is the possibility they will become the lesson on what not to do.

Here is an example of both when it comes to Star Wars Episode One sale items.

Here are some great rejected ideas!

Jason Geyer tells his story and I have to say it just makes you want to go and design for your passion.

Of course you feel for him when he talks about what didn’t happen.

All told, we cranked out well over 100 concepts that were taken to final art, and easily 300 that didn’t make it that far. No part of Star Wars was too small to think about, no character too minor. I’ve never had a situation before or since where someone said to take your favorite subject and do whatever you want with it. Nothing was too crazy or expensive to try. We even tried to make a bigJabba the Hutt beanbag chair; one prototype was made and it sat in our conference room for many years. Now Gus Lopez owns it. Anyway, I’m not sure I’ve ever had more fun bouncing ideas back and forth where the conversations usually involved talking about how Darth Vader’s mouth had that cow-catcher looking mesh piece that really looked like it could be the door on a gumball machine. Or wondering it it was possible to build a real kid sized Land Speeder? Or thinking, wouldn’t it be cool to have a giant plush Wampa standing in your living room?

Do what you love and do it with 200% passion no matter the outcome is the take home here.

This is something I found on the Nieman Journalism Lab website.

Scroll, a new editor that aims to de-templatize news design. The tool, created by soon-to-be-serialentrepreneursCody Brown and Kate Ray, wants to take the basic design approach of print — start with a totally blank page, add elements — and apply it to the online world.

The world of information design is undergoing a phenomenal change thanks to web2.0 technology.

Of course new challenges are facing us, mainly old school media creators embracing some of the change.

Take a look at how it works!

Scroll MKR Demo from Cody Brown on Vimeo.

OK this tool might not be totally there yet but tablet, web and smartphone content design is coming very fast and I think we need to start thinking in terms of new format and delivery now or when it is here we are going to be playing both mental and physical catchup.

Professors are you listening?

Truth be told some days I think that content is king and others I am sold that it is the design that is going to pull people through and to the content.

Today I stumbled upon a great site that has minimalist design and amazing content that has kept me engaged.

And the site is, http://www.coolhunting.com/

From this image you can see that it is nothing special, although when you get to the site you soon discover that it has planned its understated look and feel very carefully.

What I find compelling is the story that it is telling and the way it allows you to be drawn to what matters as opposed to what does not matter.

And what matters?

The way we interact with the content.

Interact is the key word when it comes to content because it, content is something we work with it is and can no longer be understood in static terms.

CoolHunting as an idea and in this case a website is very interesting and again a great lesson in content design and delivery.

The lesson is that great content without great design is going nowhere.

Soon to be are the three words you need to hang on.

At this moment the space I have moved my classes to is a big echoing box with a few desks for good measure.

Funny about the desks in my class, I only asked for chairs and the facilities crew brought desks for good measure.

The 1st thing my students said, “this room is different”.

The 2nd thing my students said, ” where is the projector”.

The 3rd thing my students said, “I don’t like the desks”.

I am teaching a media history, media ethics and public presentation course in this space.

What we do have is a great wifi connection and a lot of walls to stick paper on in this space.

I have never been one to go on about the space I teach in with my philosophy having been that it is the content and presentation that matter the most, I was wrong.

I think content, space and presentation all share an equal part in the mix of creating the best possible education experience.

Remember education is all about experience.

I am not sure how the space issue escaped me as I have been talking about moving classes all over the place for a long long time and event have put the idea of the coffee shop class out there.

But this room gets me well out of my comfort zone and presents a whole new canvas upon which to place my education/experience tools.

Take a look at this room day 1 and imagine what it might look like in 20 weeks if the construction process doesn’t start first!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPWExzXYCsc[/youtube]

Why are our primary school classrooms so inviting and warm and the University classrooms or lecture halls so sterile?

Space Matters! Yet at some point we think the content or thought process is more important, it isn’t, when it is just another equal part of the equation.

Not that the whole process is broken, but it does need a serious renovation.

So where do we start?

I think the starting point is a huge issue.

We have old school administrators looking at the problem with old school tools and to craft an old solution.

1st we need to admit that we have got it wrong!

Here is a nudge from TED.

So what do we do next?

The hard part is looking at the problem and not falling back into the old ruts of funding, training and building design to make things right, or better.

What we need to do is have a community conversation.

Parents, teachers, employers, higher education and the students!

We need to ask what is working and why!

We need to ask what is not working and consider why.

The start may be as easy as a little Facebook time!

I really do believe that the way we teach is an issue as is the physical building!

School is to removed from reality and that has to change.

We need to radically rethink teaching and the place we teach.

FastCompany asked a similar question and here is what came back.

The best part are the 13 ideas!

13 Radical Ideas from FastCompany to Fix Education

How would you spend $100 million? the answers are as varied as the edu-experts we asked.

Radical Idea #1

Radical Idea #2

Radical Idea #3

Radical Idea #4

Radical Idea #5

Radical Idea #6: Rethinking Teaching

Radical Idea #7

Radical Idea #8

Radical Idea #9

Radical Idea #10

Radical Idea #11

Radical Idea #12

Radical Idea #13: Build a Better Classroom

So how do we start now?

Here is another idea.

One day of each month we create a reverse mentoring scheme, a work study of sorts but the idea is not that the student learn from you but that you also learn from the student. A conversation takes place. What are you seeing that the student is not seeing? How did what you do get to this point?

Every student KG through  High School  goes on a reverse mentoring assignment each month!

The format will change to suit the student but the theme is the same.

We are making education real and we are making it work based on the environment!

Is the start easy?  No but it has to happen!

Maybe we need to think of the reverse mentoring in terms of the Tinker School format?

The reality is we need to start NOW.

And that will mean throwing a little caution into the wind.

I think we need to think big and think now.

We have talked enough now lets do.

What are your thoughts?

How many times have you been given a piece of paper, especially by a teacher, and turned it over to find it blank?

A classic example of wasted space.

And from our humble days in the classroom, I contend, we are not encouraged to think about how we use space to communicate and go on to waste it in an epic manner.

No of course we do not want to clutter our lives and have ideas and messages everywhere, that is not what I am saying.

But we do want, and need, to make use of the communication space we have at hand that is going unused and thus wasted.

So we have our one sided school handouts that are a typical waste of space.

And then we have the big one, business cards!

Here in the middle east the back of my cards are in Arabic so the space is used, but in most of the world the back is blank!

Why? Why? Why?

Hugh MacLeod created a business out of filling the empty wasted space and has gone onto a very lucrative promotion and art career with Gapingvoid!

Hugh started his career doing things like this on the back of business cards.

This got me thinking about my own business cards and how I could use the space better.

Thanks to to Hugh’s inspiration and a little bit of thought about information this is what I now have on the back of my business cards.

Thanks to the design work of Sudeep Kumar I think my business cards are a lot more useful and void of wasted space.

What is on the back of your business cards?

In communication, well journalism, we are constantly teaching and being told to think about objectivity!

Good advice if you are a journalist but bad advice if you are looking at your organization and trying to manufacture change.

We need to literally wear 2 hats in almost everything we do today, the objective do and be good hat but also have the me or subjective hat ready to put on.

As Kolko makes a good point about a skill that I think we spend too little time working at perfecting, sense-making.

Sensemaking is about the interplay of action and interpretation rather than the influence of evaluation on choice.” Cognitive psychologist Robert Hoffman describes sensemaking as “… something different from creativity, comprehension, curiosity, mental modeling, explanation, or situational awareness… sensemaking is a motivated, continuous effort to understand connections (which can be among people, places, and events) in order to anticipate their trajectories and act effectively.”

Hopefully as we move towards change we are able to make some synthesis of ideas, I think we fail at this becasue we are being trained to be objective in every aspect of our lives.

But maybe we have gotten the whole art of synthesis wrong?

As Kolko points out, “synthesis requires highly eclectic designers empowered to embrace their biases”, yet we discourage this way of thinking.

Maybe we need to stop, look, think, reflect and do the opposite of what we think is the right thing to do when it comes to organizational change.

Is it the school or the teachers (notice administrators were not there) that matter?

Is it the restaurant building or the food?

Is it the words of the book or the cover that matters?

And then there is TED, is it the speakers or the attendees that really matter?

If you watch the videos and only the videos the speakers will win hands down.

And that is in and of itself what makes TED so special, the attendees, the people you never know or hear unless you are at TED.

And it is the effort to assemble a group of attendees that makes TED so special.

But the TED organization doesn’t just bring a clever group of attendees together it also creates fantastic opportunities for them to interact.

The TED site has tried to suggest to attendees the people that have similar ideas and that same website has the bios, pictures and contact details of all coming! And then there is the facebook (private group) with a couple of hundred people talking.

In one word WOW!

Imagine if academic conferences did this around the content?

***Note to self organize an academic conference with a TED feel.

One of the people I have been flagged to meet is Craig Hanna and what I find interesting is the organization he is with, ThinkWell.

Go check out ThinkWell I also love the simplicity yet content rich website they have. A colleague has said it is run off open source coding, interesting!

*** note to self think about the open source classroom and why it might be the an option even if just between campuses

What if I could tap into .001% of what Craig Hanna is doing as the chief creative officer at ThinkWell and import it into the classroom?

What is Thinkwell all about?

Every project is special and requires its own set of tools. We’ve created distinct divisions under Thinkwell Group to meet this very need. With this flexibility, we bring every project to life with exactly the right team.

With these talents, we’re able to touch dozens of diverse industries. And of course, we’re always eager to try our hand at something new.

Does that bio ever sound like my University maybe every university!

Hmmm…

What if I could not only borrow the feel of the web identity from Thinkwell but the thinking as I reinvent the way I teach everything?

Maybe we need to think about what we do or are doing at the University differently?

Maybe we need a bit more Thinkwell in the mix?

I was sure that we had gotten past the old web design mindset, “blind them with gadgets”, but I was wrong.

One of the best media websites was The National was is the key word.

The National had a page that was clear, crisp and navigable with ease.

That has all changed.

Today I no longer go to the website of The National and instead read the paper on my iPhone, because the iPhone App is clean, clear and direct.

I really did think with the App revolution upon us designers had seen the light and would take the design necessary for a mobile App and rethink their web design practices.

Yes I am generalizing but the reality is web design is really not keeping up with the time!

Here is what The National Website looked like today.

And here is what the App looks like. (sorry for the poor picture)

When all is said and done with the App I can find a story with ease and be into the story at the tap of the screen.

With the website finding the local, regional, and international stories is possible but anything clear and easy to access.

Maybe it is just me but shouldn’t a site be easy to navigate?

The sad reality is too many professors prepare for the coming year using the tried and true techniques and resources they became familiar with in grad school.

I am sure I could ignite a debate about what makes a good teacher and what makes a good resource at the post secondary level but the reality is we need to be teaching to tomorrow and not yesterday. Too many of the case studies and resources we turn to, out of comfort, are old, geo specific or simply not applicable.

I find myself increasingly turning to publications like FastCompany when I am thinking about what and how I am going to approach almost every topic in my field study, communication and media sciences.

Take this article for example it talks about design thinking and business, but I think it has a whole lot more to do with the education process.

1. Empathize: Like any good design project, your business is about the people you’re designing for.

2. Define: Are you focused and open to what your team needs in order to thrive?

3. Ideate: It’s time to brainstorm. “This is the most fun part of the process,” Kothari says. “It’s the stage where you don’t block any ideas and embrace all your wildest ideas — there might be a small piece of it that could be integrated in the final product.”

4. Create a prototype: Can you physically build a prototype using Post-Its or popsicle sticks that can help you answer some questions?

5. Test your prototype: Take your prototypes out for a spin in the real world. Ask strangers what they think of it. Failure is okay—it can be built upon.

These 5 steps in are all about the thinking to action process and apply to theory as well as practice.

The greatest problem faced by students and teachers alike today is that they think of everything in too narrow a context missing great ideas and inspiration.

Think large read odd things and look for the connections because they are there, we all really think, talk and research about variations of the same things.

What if each class activated this 5 point plan on a monthly basis?

If we did this, applied design thinking to our teaching, and there was no recognisable benefit at least the context of the learning environment would become a whole lot more interesting, .