The Idea DJ method to unblock creativity

As anyone working on research or creative projects knows, there are moments when ideas feel fuzzy, and articulating them becomes a challenge. The process of refining and developing ideas can be daunting when exploring new concepts. I want to share how I use AI tools like ChatGPT to break through those creative blocks and refine my ideas. While the example I'll focus on is from my work in educational technology, the process I use is universal and can be applied to any kind of creative thinking.

Rather than a structured, recursive process with multiple web searches, this method is like working with an 'Idea DJ.' ChatGPT can remix concepts, mash up disparate ideas, and help me discover unexpected connections. Just like a DJ crafts a unique experience by blending tracks, AI helps me generate creative insights by mixing two trains of thought in order to get fresh angles.

Difficulty defining an idea and searching the web

I am currently struggling trying to articulate an idea for my next EdTech exploration. It involves an interface on top of existing collaboration tools like digital whiteboards to give instructors more insight into how students are processing information. This is inspired by my previous EdTech interface explorations, but I can't seem to get a good grasp on how to explain it well. As soon as I start typing, things start to sound convoluted and I lose steam.

My way out of this kind of writer’s block often involves going to the web and doing some more research. However, because web searches rely heavily on keywords, they can leave you intellectually stranded if you don't know what to look for.

I could try keyword foraging, which involves looking for the right keywords as a precursor to higher value web searches, but that might still not be inspiring enough. There are moments, like this one, where what I’m searching for has fuzzier edges than any single query can capture.

Warming up the Generative AI Idea DJ

GenAI is a lot more accepting of fuzziness. Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude are happy to eek out any meaning from your prompts. They are aggressively biased to action and demonstrating their understanding. No matter what you throw at them, they will try to reconcile it in service of completing your request. You can ask for a connection between lion anatomy and the taste of dark chocolate, and an AI will force a connection (here’s the answer for the insatiably curious). Like a DJ of ideas, the machine takes two ideas and creates a mash up that’s particularly well-suited for a starting point. Once you see the generated answer, your much more beautiful human brain can see if the connection makes any sense and you can decide whether or not to pursue this line of thinking.

To get started, the DJ will need to know who’s at the party to understand what kinds of beats to lay down. This can involve informing it of your previous works, loose ideas about what you’re doing in general, or any kind of context about the larger themes. In this particular case, I took screenshots of the 4 written posts mentioning my EdTech UI experiments and asked it to extract any patterns it noticed with the following prompt:

I was curious to know if I might have been unknowingly writing about this analytics idea and have it emerge organically. This was ChatGPT’s answer:

Based on the blog posts you provided, several key themes emerge around the use of EdTech to enable deeper learning:

Based on the blog posts you provided, several key themes emerge around the use of EdTech to enable deeper learning:

1. **Facilitating Richer Discussions and Critical Thinking**:
   - Your posts discuss how educational technology can create environments where students are better able to see and appreciate different perspectives. For instance, in the post "Can this tool make design class discussions richer?", you highlight the importance of structured activities that encourage students to engage in deeper critical thinking and discussions by understanding different viewpoints.

2. **Challenging and Debunking Learning Myths**:
   - In the post "Using technology to break the learning styles myth," you challenge the commonly held belief in learning styles. You advocate for the use of technology to promote multi-modal learning, helping students to learn through various methods rather than being pigeonholed into a single learning style. This reflects a broader theme of questioning outdated or oversimplified educational concepts using modern tools.

3. **Encouraging Reflection and Self-Directed Learning**:
   - The theme of self-reflection is prominent, particularly in "The Magic of Students Giving Themselves Advice," where you explore how students can learn by advising themselves or others, leading to self-discovery and increased confidence. The idea here is that technology can be used to prompt deeper introspection, which is crucial for personal and academic growth.

4. **Enhancing Collaboration Through Technological Tools**:
   - Your posts also explore how EdTech can be leveraged to enhance collaboration among students. For example, in "Making 'think twice' a tangible tool for learning," you discuss using AI to facilitate more meaningful classroom conversations by making students’ thought processes visible to their peers. This promotes a collaborative environment where different perspectives are considered and debated.

5. **Tailoring Educational Experiences**:
   - Another recurring theme is the customization of learning experiences. Technology is presented as a way to adapt teaching methods to individual needs, as seen in the discussions on how different methods (text, audio, video) can be used to reach diverse learners effectively. You advocate for using tech tools to tailor learning experiences, thereby making them more relevant and impactful for each student.

These themes collectively suggest that you view EdTech as a powerful enabler of deeper, more meaningful learning experiences by fostering critical thinking, promoting reflection, encouraging collaboration, and challenging conventional wisdom in education.

Though it did not seem like any relevant themes were emerging from my writing, it’s a good step towards my goal. The AI is now primed with words from my own writing, and can use that as a foundation for future prompts I’ll be making and connections I’ll be requesting.

Herbie Hancock once described that Miles Davis taught him in music there are no mistakes, only opportunities. I believe the same to be true of research so we’re just going to keep going with the flow.

Now I’m going to ask it specifically to pull the idea out. I’ll try and reinforce what I’m looking for by adding some fuel and pasting in the entire transcript of my latest experiment about metacognition. That video contained a direct mention of instructor interfaces, so I was intentionally goading it to produce something. Here's what I wrote:

Below is the answer to this prompt:

The concept of an asymmetric interface between instructor and learner, as described in your articles and video transcript, suggests several potential areas of exploration:

### 1. **Dynamic Real-Time Feedback and Intervention**
   - **Exploration Area**: How can real-time data analytics enhance the instructor's ability to intervene strategically during a lesson? 
   - **Context**: Your current approach allows instructors to monitor student highlights and reflections in real-time, providing an opportunity to identify key moments for intervention. This could be expanded by exploring how AI could flag moments when a student might need additional support or when the class might benefit from a shift in focus based on the collective data.

### 2. **Personalized Learning Paths within a Shared Experience**
   - **Exploration Area**: How can this asymmetric interface support the creation of personalized learning experiences that still contribute to collective classroom goals?
   - **Context**: The instructor's view allows for understanding individual student's engagement with the material, which could be used to tailor prompts, breakout discussions, or follow-up assignments that cater to each student's unique learning journey while still aligning with broader class objectives.

### 3. **Balancing Instructor Autonomy with AI Recommendations**
   - **Exploration Area**: What is the optimal balance between instructor autonomy and AI-generated recommendations in facilitating discussions and reflections?
   - **Context**: The interface provides AI-driven prompts and insights, but also allows the instructor to make the final call on which prompts to use or which discussion points to emphasize. Exploring this balance can reveal best practices for integrating AI into teaching without diminishing the instructor's role.

### 4. **Enhancing Metacognitive Skill Development**
   - **Exploration Area**: How can this interface further support the development of metacognitive skills across diverse student populations?
   - **Context**: Your video discusses using AI to prompt students to reflect on their thought processes. Further exploration could focus on how these tools can be adapted to meet the needs of students with varying levels of metacognitive awareness, potentially offering differentiated prompts or reflection exercises based on a student's demonstrated metacognitive maturity.

### 5. **Ethical Implications and Student Perception**
   - **Exploration Area**: What are the ethical implications and potential impacts on student trust and agency when instructors have access to more detailed analytics and control in real-time?
   - **Context**: The asymmetric nature of this interface raises questions about transparency and student autonomy. Investigating how to design these systems in a way that maintains student trust, encourages transparency, and respects student privacy while still providing the instructor with actionable insights could be a significant area of research.

### 6. **Designing for Scalable and Flexible Implementation**
   - **Exploration Area**: How can this asymmetric interface be designed to scale across different educational contexts and disciplines?
   - **Context**: The tool's effectiveness may vary depending on class size, subject matter, or teaching style. Exploring how to adapt the interface to different learning environments—ranging from small seminars to large lectures—while maintaining its benefits could make the tool more versatile and widely applicable.

These exploration areas highlight the potential of asymmetric interfaces to revolutionize the way instructors guide and support students, providing a tailored and responsive educational experience while still addressing the challenges and ethical considerations that come with such powerful tools.

Once again, I did not enjoy this response and found it less than insightful. Maybe I’ve pushed too hard in one direction and biased it too severely. Unlike a human DJ who can use their expert intuition to ignore a bad request from the crowd because they have a better read of the room, this AI DJ always complies. If I ask it to find something, it will do so regardless of whether or not the connection actually exists or makes sense.

Yet, Herbie Hancock’s lesson about no mistakes still applies here. If you're reckoning with something important to you, these kinds of failures act a little like the "revealed preference" psychological phenomena we’ve all experienced when flipping a coin. When I see an answer, I realize what I don't want and this forces my brains into a little more clarity.

Hey DJ, drop the beat

Feeling more inspired now that I know what I don’t want, my brain exposed associations between the instructor interface and concepts from game design, like 'information asymmetry,' where one party has access to information that others don’t. You can think of it like a Dungeon Master in a role-playing game who has an overview of everything, allowing them to guide the players without revealing all the details. Similarly, instructors could use this tool to see how students are processing information without students necessarily being aware of this insight.

I was very excited by newfound articulation and replied with this prompt:

The Idea DJ now has the opportunity to shine. I am expressing disparate concepts that are loosely formed in my mind and asking it to look things up in order to further my ideas. Critically, I did not ask it to write anything for me. A DJ’s job should never be to enjoy the music on my behalf. Instead they should find a mix of tracks, both familiar and novel, to create good vibes and get us dancing.

My goal is to deepen my understanding. I wanted the research findings to be listed out clearly so that I can sift through them and validate if all of them are sufficiently relevant.

Here’s ChatGPT’s answer:

The concept of the instructor as a Dungeon Master (DM) in the classroom, where they have a "hidden" layer of insight and control to guide the learning experience, aligns with several educational philosophies and technological ideas. Here's a look at some relevant thinkers and concepts:

### 1. **John Dewey and Pragmatism**
   - **Relevant Ideas**: John Dewey, a key figure in educational philosophy, emphasized the importance of experiential learning and the role of the teacher in facilitating this experience. Dewey's idea of the teacher as a guide who helps shape the learning environment to promote inquiry and reflection resonates with the DM analogy. Dewey's emphasis on adaptability and responsiveness in teaching could be seen as a precursor to the idea of a teacher using real-time analytics to shape classroom activities dynamically.

### 2. **Seymour Papert and Constructionism**
   - **Relevant Ideas**: Seymour Papert, a pioneer in educational technology, developed the theory of constructionism, which emphasizes learning through making and the role of the teacher in facilitating environments where students can build and explore ideas. Papert’s work with the Logo programming language can be seen as giving students tools to explore while the teacher (like a DM) sets the stage and adjusts the environment based on the students’ progress and needs.

### 3. **Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)**
   - **Relevant Ideas**: Lev Vygotsky's concept of the Zone of Proximal Development is about the area where a learner can perform a task with guidance but not yet independently. Instructors, much like DMs, need to know where each student is in their ZPD and craft experiences that challenge students just enough to facilitate growth. This idea supports the use of real-time analytics to adjust the difficulty and nature of tasks on the fly, ensuring that the learning experience is always in the student's ZPD.

### 4. **Donald Schön’s Reflective Practitioner**
   - **Relevant Ideas**: Donald Schön introduced the concept of the "reflective practitioner," where professionals (including educators) reflect in action, adjusting their strategies based on the situation at hand. This aligns with the idea of a DM who constantly adjusts the game in real time. Schön’s work supports the idea that educators need to be adaptive and responsive, using whatever tools are at their disposal to create meaningful learning experiences.

### 5. **Game Design and Narrative Theory**
   - **Relevant Ideas**: The comparison to a Dungeon Master draws heavily on game design principles. Game designers like Jesse Schell or narrative theorists like Henry Jenkins discuss the role of the designer as someone who creates an environment for players to explore, guiding the experience without overt control. The idea is to set up scenarios where players (or students) feel they have agency, but the designer (or teacher) subtly steers them toward meaningful experiences.

### 6. **Michel Foucault and Power Dynamics**
   - **Relevant Ideas**: Michel Foucault’s work on power dynamics, particularly in the context of institutions, can provide a philosophical lens to consider the role of the teacher as someone who holds knowledge that others do not. The teacher, like a DM, has the power to shape the learning experience by controlling the flow of information and guiding the narrative. Foucault’s work might inspire a critical view of this dynamic, exploring the balance between guidance and control.

### 7. **Constructivist and Connectivist Learning Theories**
   - **Relevant Ideas**: These theories emphasize that knowledge is constructed through interaction with the environment and others. Instructors, therefore, are not just providers of knowledge but facilitators of an environment where knowledge is constructed. The DM analogy works well here, as the instructor uses their privileged position (with access to analytics and tools) to create conditions that encourage students to build their own understanding.

### 8. **Technology and AI in Education**
   - **Relevant Ideas**: Current discussions around AI in education often touch on the idea of adaptive learning environments. Thinkers like Tony Bates and Audrey Watters have discussed the potential and pitfalls of AI in the classroom. The idea of an instructor using AI as a tool to enhance real-time decision-making aligns with these discussions, though it also raises questions about the ethics and effectiveness of such approaches.

### 9. **Chaos Theory in Learning**
   - **Relevant Ideas**: Chaos theory, when applied to learning, suggests that educational environments should allow for emergent, unpredictable outcomes. An instructor acting as a DM might create conditions where learning can take unexpected turns, leveraging real-time analytics to guide these moments toward productive ends.

This blend of educational theory, game design, and philosophy creates a rich tapestry for exploring the role of the instructor in a modern, technology-enhanced classroom. The DM analogy provides a powerful way to think about the instructor's role in managing the learning experience—balancing structure with flexibility, control with freedom, and guidance with autonomy.

As you can see, I got something that would have been incredibly tedious to achieve with a Google search. ChatGPT came back with a list of people, concepts, and keywords that I can now use to deepen my thinking and clarify my vision for my idea. Best of all, it did so while integrating the relevance of each finding to my specific context. As I am not formally trained in educational psychology or pedagogy, this is tremendous for sifting through the list and validating it with more research.

This 'Idea DJ' approach thrives on variety and surprise. I can go a step further and ask it to get me links to these people’s writings or content that would help me dig deeper into any of its findings. Each time I prompt AI, it offers a new remix, helping me to explore tangents that I might not have considered otherwise. Those tangents, filtered through my lived experience, can be excellent sources of divergent thinking and discovery. In my case, it exposed me to a mix of inspiration that I likely wouldn’t have considered—especially not this quickly.

I hope you enjoyed this post and got something out of it. Last week I demoed a UI that helps students with metacognition, so I figured it's only fitting I share my own metacognitive reflections.

If it sparked anything for you—even it’s that’s just an exclamation of excitement—please do share your thoughts with me. I reply to every message I get and love learning from people’s experiments!