Setting a Vision

For this part of the Creative Brief / Teacher's Guide, you should describe what a video camera and boom microphone would pick up as it moved around your classroom while students engage in the activity you're designing. Also feel free to describe what's going on in the hearts and minds of your learners. Try out The Idea Machine and read some Reasons to Set a Vision, both located on this page.

- Brainstorming a Vision

The Idea Machine is a possibility pool that might help you get into the Flow of brainstorming. Click through the ideas either randomly or consecutively to get ideas that might help you set a vision for what you want to accomplish with learners. If the ideas create sparks for you, return to the Learning Gap phase to input your Vision.

Reasons to Set a Vision

Emulate the Experts

Successful athletes often envision themselves perfectly executing a particular feat as part of their training routines. Simplistically described, the notion is to smooth out the mental connections and blocks that may hinder them at an unconscious level. By raising the perfected performance to awareness, the mind becomes well-acquainted with what's envisioned, thus quieting the unconscious critic and nay-sayer.

It's not the Activity

You're using Web-and-Flow because you want to create a Web-based learning activity. But to make sure we don't skip the learning and only create activity, we don't jump into a template or race off to the nearest search engine. By spending time mulling, cogitating, and reflecting on things we'd like our students to do, we plot out markers that, when we meet them down the path, let us know we're achieving success.

One more Time...

The reason we need to set a vision is that in teaching it's too easy to get caught up in the million and ten details that grab our attention each day in the classroom. Without a clear picture of where we want to go with students and how we'd like to get there, the rush and routine are likely to make us forget the big picture, leaving people busy, but not, perhaps, busy learning.