Why stealing ideas is good for creativity

You're right to advise your pupils against copying the answer of the person sitting next to you, of course, as it might be wrong. They might as well make their own mistakes. But what if you're attempting to stimulate their creativity, where there is no right and wrong? Then your biggest obstacle is the blank page.

One quick way to generate a new idea, is to take two, unrelated stimuli and combine them. I am a designer. I look out of my window and see a a football out in the garden and a car passing. I think: could I create a form of transport based on a rolling ball? How would passengers get in and out of it? How would it be steered? Is the driver inside the ball? How will they see out? I grab my sketchpad and off I go. Or I'm a writer. I begin a story. A child holds a football between her hands, feeling it's texture, examining it's stitches in minute detail. Her world is the ball, and the view outside of the car window flashes by unseen. Where has she come from? Where is she going? Who is driving? A story has begun.

So, when you begin a film-making project with young people, start with the question 'what do you watch' rather than 'what do you want to make'. Find out what engages them. You'll usually find a programme that just about everyone in the group watches, or that the group will split into two groups, each insistant that their favorite programme is best! Allow them to explain the program's format to you. See if you can build up an understanding of the format from your student's explanations, don't lead them. This is easier if these are programmes that you've never seen before so if you are familiar with them, pretend that you're not!

The format is your first stimuli, and in school the second is likely to be your curriculum objective. But now instead of trying to convince your students that presenting Ancient Egypt as a news programe is going to be fun you'll have students champing at the bit to make 'The Only Way Is Egypt' or 'Mister Maker Mummifies in a Minute'. No, I haven't made either of these and yes, you're welcome to.

Deep and independent learning begins with the student's interest, so start with something they've told you they're interested in!