Brainstorming New Ideas to Improve the Ways Children Play

At Making Sparks, more than 150 participants including concerned parents, devoted educators, insightful researchers, tech wizards, media maestros, creative thinkers, inspired inventors, and engaged citizens came together to participate in a conversation about play.

The goal of this Dialogue and Ideation session was to develop new ideas for potential Super Spark projects that could make a positive impact on the ways our children play. By thinking and working together, leaders from many different fields combined their knowledge and ingenuity to create new initiatives capable of producing truly transformative change.

To achieve this outcome, Sprout-trained facilitation teams guided eight breakout groups of 15 to 20 participants each through several ideation activities. Ideation Moderators steered participants through the discussion process while Graphic Facilitators visually documented the conversation in illustrations that captured new ideas and concepts as they developed. Ideation Sessions included the following activities:

Playing with Time

Participants imagined back to their own childhood to remember how they played as children, identify common themes and practices, and define the lasting value of play.

Today’s Way of Play

The conversation fast forwarded to consider how today’s children experience play, the role technology plays in that experience, and how to better integrate play and technology.

Concept Clustering

This activity helped to focus the discussion on specific service priorities and to identify opportunities for new Spark projects.

Idea Development

Participants brainstormed new ways to introduce technology and media into the way kids play and developed new ideas for Micro and Super Spark projects.

Super Spark Evaluation

Finally, participants used Sprout’s funding criteria to evaluate their ideas and choose the best one to present during the conclusion of Making Sparks.