Guest Blogger Hannah Wolfe
Ideas come in all shapes and sizes. More importantly, they come to us in all sorts of ways. An important aspect of the CUPID Writing and Publishing Studio class is brainstorming. The objective of the class is to figure out how to implement a creative plan, in the case of our class: a revamped English Department Newsletter.
Brainstorming is a technique that allows a group to entertain a series of ideas in order to find a solution. A brainstorming session can be administered in all sorts of ways. They are flexible and open and their structure fosters an environment of creativity. Brainstorming allows a group to create and develop ideas with contributions from many perspectives.
In determining what the updated newsletter would look like, the class engaged in a series of brainstorming sessions. One session in particular was successful in determining the direction of the project. As pictured below, the scrum board technique allows participants to write ideas down on sticky notes. The notes can then be moved around and categorized for visual aid in brainstorming process.
The main purpose of the brainstorm was to determine what form the new English Department newsletter would take, how it would be distributed, and what content it would include. Professor Pope-Ruark led the brainstorm and gave specific prompts to the class about the form, distribution, and content, and the class would write ideas on individual sticky notes and add them to the board. Once the idea generation was complete, the class categorized the sticky notes based on which ideas we liked the most. From there we were able to connect the dots incorporate the usable ideas into one working project
The scrum board brainstorming technique was a great experience. Not only was the class able to successfully compile ideas for our project, but it also provided an effective brainstorming experience that can be applied to future sessions where the same technique could be utilized.
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