At Credenda, we have a Social Responsibility course where the Glogster “Humankind is Our Business” http://nglos.edu.glogster.com/humankind-is-our-business/ can help foster the development of the creating mind. The Glogster supports this outcome and its learning concepts:
Outcome 5: Students will demonstrate understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of profit motivated businesses, non-profit organizations, and social business models.
- LC: The standard businesses model is designed to minimize cost and maximize profits.
- LC: Non-profit organizations mirror the standard business model but are restricted by their dependence on donations.
- LC: A social business model has the sustainability of a profit motivated business but is directed towards maximum social gain.
- LC: The social business model recognizes that humans are multi-dimensional.
The Glogster itself uses the creative power of storytelling. Jason Ohler writes this about the power of storytelling,
Stories permeate our social fabric and have the primary function of teaching others, whether formally or informally. When you get right down to it, much of the communication that transpires among people, whether in classrooms, offices, living rooms, or the online communities that permeate the Internet, consists of telling stories. I began to see and hear stories all around me, like a kind of social, emotional, psychological, and spiritual air we all breathe to stay alive.” (2008).
As students read the story of CEO Blue, CEO Red, and CEO Purple they are engaged by the problems experienced by CEO Blue in a profit-motivated business and those by CEO Red in a non-profit organization. CEO Purple’s conflict resolution of combining the best of both types of business into a social business is transformative. Students are then challenged to create their own transformative social business after watching the Discovery Education on entrepreneurship and taking the quiz to reinforce key concepts from the video. A concise business plan organizer link ensures their business plan is complete and they have a link to the Yunus Centre to learn more about the philosophy behind the concept of a social business.
Because the concept of a social business is so new, it has huge potential for creativity. It will be up to the teacher, but I would start to collect the social business plans submitted and share them with current students to help build creative momentum.
Sources
Ohler, J. (2008). Digital storytelling in the classroom: new media pathways to literacy, learning, and creativity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
