The brainstorming day went well, I think.  I don't know what the students think though.  Should I start taking surveys at the end of every class?? Which reminds me that I need to do a pre-survey about self-directed learning.  I will need to get that done today.

Last week's brainstorming class used Leidtka's book.  The prior week, students did an out-of-class ethnographic study so they came to class having experienced at least one customer's journey for a problem.  We then formalized that journey by using Leidtka's journey map exercise of mapping out highs & lows.  We then used that map to brainstorm the idea further.  Students finalized their product idea and then walked around and looked at each others posters (flip chart paper).  They were then asked to do one more revision based on comments they had received.  Three teams had the exact same idea, so two merged together. Then the next exercise was Leidtka's mind mapping. Without talking, students were to leave a post-it-note on a poster about something they liked or disliked about the idea.  The take home assignment was that students were to put together 1 ppt of the idea to present in the next class (5 min max) and also complete Leidtka's napkin pitch exercise.  This is turned in as a homework assignment.

General observations:
1. Some of my international 'A' students struggle with the concept of self-directed learning.  They are the ones that continually do not follow directions.  Maybe there is a language barrier here.
2.  The ideas generated by the students are very similar to past classes, so perhaps the type of ideation exercise doesn't really matter.
3. Overall, I get positive feedback almost every class.
4.  Check points, such as quizzes, seem to be essential to make sure that the students actually learn the material that they are suppose to be learning.  Having a book (even if it is mine), certainly helps with the self-learning process.  I'm not sure I would do it without a book.

This weekend, I attended the InnovWeekend, which was a start-up weekend of the Entrepreneurship club. Students had 48 hours to put a product together.  Many of the students, particularly engineers, had an idea/product they had been already working on.  It seems as if these students did not win the competition.  I will have to verify that.  I think the reason is that the ideas are very different than the business school's ideas and the judges tend to be from the business school.  Also the engineers did not do a great job of presenting their ideas.  The idea presentation is extremely important for entrepreneurs.  I must remember to show shark tank to my students today.

Final thoughts:  The organic nature of this class keeps me interested.  I'm hoping its not too organic for the students!

Turning education on its head

I have decided to teach my new products class as self-directed learning.  What this means I am not exactly sure.  However, I have given it the definition to mean that students are required to learn the material outside the classroom and we conduct the homeworks in class.  The first day of class I started off with asking students what is it they wanted to learn.  Many answered some of the standard answers.  I also asked what they wanted to do for the course project.  One response was to launch a new product/service.  I queried the class using Polleverywhere which allows students to respond anonymously.  3/4 of the student thought it was a great idea and 1/4 were not sure.  I have the sense that students don't actually like the uncertainty of the project as it will be very fluid.  We will come up with the product idea during class, we will decide how to develop it in class and then decide how to launch it.  One student suggested a Kickstarter campaign, which I think is a fabulous idea.  So we will be going through each step of the new product process during class.  Wow!  A new one for me.  I'll use this blog to give updates on how the class is progressing.

Boston Marathon Bombers

April 20. 2013. On Monday in Amsterdam, two men planted a bomb at the Boston Marathon.  I was traveling in Europe at the time and could only observe what everyone back at home was experiencing through the eyes (biased??) of the internet.  I probably felt more disturbed than those in the thick of it because I could not be home with my loved ones.  I awoke in Milan on Friday morning to see that the two men had gone on a crime rampage and the entire city of Boston had gone into a 'shut-down' mode.  There were no buses, no trains, no subway.  Boston turned into an unprecedented ghost town while two brothers originating from Chechnya, which even I didn't know was near Russia, terrorized Cambridge and Watertown. I checked the web at least three times an hour to see if any more carnage had ensued.  A few hours into the crisis, Northeastern went into lock down mode so that all classes were canceled, including finals, and the university was officially closed.  Businesses across the city were asked to keep closed for the day.  I can't even imagine an entire city being shut down. 

When the youngest of the brothers was caught (the older died before being captured), the city erupted into a spontaneous party.  I'm sure it was even more exciting than when the Red Sox won the world series or when Obama won the election the first time, both events that I was in town to experience.  Here is a picture of a party near Northeastern.

One thing I to say is that I don't understand these type of people who feel that violence, particularly to innocent bystanders, is the way to convey a message.  Much to Boston's credit, fear has never been an option in which to hide from.  The city was created based on the fearlessness of a few men who stood up against a monarchy who didn't care about the individual.  So it will take much more than two cowards to topple over this town.  Instead, I know that the people of Boston will be stronger and will look out for each other even more than before this violence.  So maybe it is not good to call this event senseless, because it has awakened our senses on how important our friends and family really are to us and how we can be united as a community.  B Strong Everyone, not just Boston!