By Ben Lauren
When i was in high school, my father routinely used me to validate his educational philosophies. He’d say, “How do you approach solving a problem?” and I’d answer, much to his satisfaction, “Find as many solutions as possible.” My father did not know it, but what he was advocating for was divergent thinking, the capacity to discover several solutions to a single problem.
I referred to this idea recently in a focus group on media labs when a participant said, “writing students shouldn’t be required to use any proprietary software.” The speaker went on to suggest that proprietary software is unnecessarily restrictive and might limit innovation, much like some multiple choice tests limit the possible correct answers a student can select. The debate about proprietary software aside, we all agreed that limiting the resources of a technical communicator frustrates innovation and limits the potential to see many solutions to a single communication problem.
With all the recent conversation about the benefits of technology and communication convergences, media labs that support technical communication educational programs continue to embrace divergent thinking models to enable innovation in a world where media standardization has quickly become a dull norm. Technology brings technical communicators the ability to make an idea unique—to stand out—to take an accessible shape or form as culture evolves. In contrast, convergent thinking, or seeking a single correct answer for a problem while setting aside other potential solutions, is a goal of many students searching for help in media labs.
To illustrate the importance of a divergent-thinking model, consider the following case studies demonstrating the failure and success of two students using a media lab. These stories are so common they are almost cliché, but they also demonstrate differences between divergent and convergent thinking models.
All I need is help! Help! Help is all I need!
A student came to the media lab with video footage and announced, “I need someone to edit this for me! Can you help?” Sitting down with him, I asked about the assignment and he explained he had to create an advertisement for a new skin-care product. He had filmed a young mother having a perfect day with her family. The day, he continued, would end with the main character applying the skin product to her face. He was not sure how to order the events, and he confessed he did not have a very clear understanding of video-editing software.
Before showing the student how the editing software functioned, I suggested he storyboard his ideas on paper. He reluctantly agreed, but asked, “How will this help me edit the video?” I explained that storyboarding would help him outline scenes, revealing potential directions and ways to work with the video captured, much like how an outline can make clear sections of a written essay. As he got started with the process, he realized he couldn’t create the storyboard because he wasn’t sure how the scenes should be arranged. He explained to me that he had not thought that far ahead. He was confused about his message for the ad, and he was uncertain how to proceed.
To show him there were many potential solutions, I suggested he use a technique known as mind mapping to help find connections between his ideas and the footage. A mind map is a common tool for facilitating divergent thinking because of its nonlinear approach to diagramming ideas. But he felt the clock ticking. He was not at the media lab to discover several solutions to his editing or message problems; he was there to find a single, workable solution so he could turn the assignment in on time. As soon as I explained the benefits of mind mapping he resisted and explained he didn’t have time for the approach and confessed he “came to the lab because someone told me you guys edit videos for people.” Frustrated, he got up and left.
In the media lab, divergent thinking is not always a simple, easy process. Oftentimes it is a murky and intriguing way of thinking through a project. While considering many potential solutions, technical communicators better understand their audience, purpose, the media options available, and their tools. To be clear, a divergent thinking model is not electronic schmoozery—it is a solution-focused method that without limit weighs potential avenues for completing a project deliberately and effectively. Yet, every project has constraints, which is why divergent thinking is most important at the beginning of the process rather than at the end.
Radical Revision
Asked to revise a paper using additional modalities, another student came to the lab with no idea how to proceed. Her goal for meeting with me was to explore ideas about how to “remediate” the essay. We read the essay together, thinking about the message and audience. The essay was a research document on the importance of immigration in a struggling economic climate. Some of the sources were interviews with local immigrants who contributed positively to the economy. Additionally, the student used data to show the positive impact of immigration on the local economy.
We started off by defining the audience for the revision, which led to brainstorming media outlets the audience most likely accessed. From there, the student left to do some additional research about the audience. Later during the week, the student reappeared with several ideas for revision. She discovered that the audience likely listened to talk radio, watched local nightly news, and read the newspaper either online or in print.
The student said she was considering creating a news broadcast that focused on immigration in bad economic times. She thought hosting it on YouTube might solve her problem of delivering the video to a broad audience. I suggested looking for examples to study, and as she searched, it became clear that there were too many ways to approach this one assignment—she felt overwhelmed by the possibilities. To move from abstract thought to concrete action, we tried to storyboard the newscast more than once, but we ran into issues of scope or audience that were unforeseen challenges in the approach. We needed additional thinking, exploring, and revision.
She eventually found a podcast special report on immigration issues, initially broadcast by a local radio station. She decided the podcast was an effective way to hear directly from her interviewees without revealing what they physically looked like, a concept she first discovered while storyboarding an earlier idea. She felt the podcast would also solve her delivery issue. She used equipment in the media lab to record her podcast and successfully finished the remediated revision of content for her essay.
While the process of thinking through this assignment was challenging, each solution during the process led to another potential solution. Divergent thinking allows for this mindset of exploration. A convergent-thinking model, on the other hand, creates a mindset of task completion and technology use without reflection.
Considerations
While divergent thinking can frustrate those already invested in a convergent model, an open process of discovery is key to developing usable and accessible communication, and media labs are ideally suited to focus on audience needs and media-type affordances. Furthermore, reflection is an essential component to learning and is an embedded characteristic of divergent-thinking models. Because technical communicators have so much technology available to them, experimentation with different ideas and platforms is part of the composing process—and should be. In the same way that iterative design calls for rapid prototyping and testing, media labs should consider working with students early on in a similar manner, encouraging reflection, revision, and learning.
Ben Lauren (laurenb@fiu.edu) is the coordinator of the Digital Writing Studio at Florida International University where he teaches courses in technical communication and rhetorical theory. Currently he is working on his PhD in technical communication and rhetoric from Texas Tech University.
