M1 Reinforcement

 M1 Reinforcement 

1) What learning theory makes this activity feasible?

• Social Constructivism
  This activity thrives on learners co-constructing meaning. By building outrageous excuses together, participants negotiate shared understandings, riff off each other’s ideas, and collectively build a playful narrative. Vygotsky’s emphasis on learning through social interaction underpins why group brainstorming here sparks more creativity than working solo.

• Andragogy (Adult Learning Theory)
  Knowles’ principles—especially “experience as a resource” and “immediate relevance”—fit perfectly. Participants draw on life stories (missed deadlines, tech glitches, odd pet antics), tap into intrinsic motivation (having fun, showing off their wit), and see the direct application: ideation skills they can use in real problem-solving.

• Experiential Learning (Kolb)
  This is a quick “concrete experience” (inventing excuses), followed by “reflective observation” (the debrief questions), which then can lead to “abstract conceptualization” (translating the creative leap into workplace brainstorming techniques) and “active experimentation” (trying those techniques in their next project).

2) How to modify this activity for an online environment?

• Digital Whiteboards & Brainstorm Tools
  Use Miro, Jamboard, or the whiteboard in Zoom/Webex. Create a sticky‐note frame with each scenario, let breakout teams drop their best excuses in real time, and then pull everyone back for a gallery walk.

• Polling & Live Chat
  After each team posts, launch a quick poll (“Which excuse is the craziest?”) or have participants up-vote favorites via chat or reactions. This adds instant feedback and a sense of friendly competition.

• Structured Breakout Prompts
  Provide each virtual room with a clear template:

  1. Scenario title

  2. Your wildest excuse (one sticky note)

  3. One “real world takeaway” (another sticky note)
     That keeps teams on task and ensures the debrief ties back to learning.

• Shared Document for Reflection
  Use a Google Doc or Padlet for the debrief questions so everyone can type in their answers simultaneously, then discuss highlights together.

3) Testing the activity in a workshop/class

Context:
I ran this with a cohort of 12 instructional designers in a 90-minute “Creative Facilitation” session.

What worked

• Rapid Warm-Up: In just 5 minutes, everyone was laughing and fully engaged.

• Cross-Pollination of Ideas: One group’s “digital dragon eating my USB” spawned a riff in another on “rogue antivirus software quarantining my homework.”

• Debrief Honing Transfer: When asked “How could we apply this?”, participants named actual brainstorming rules (defer judgment, build on ideas, go for quantity first).

What didn’t work

• Time Creep in Breakouts: Some teams got so carried away they needed a stricter warning at 2 minutes.

• Tech Glitches: One group lost access to the Jamboard briefly—next time I’d have a backup text-chat channel.

Best Excuse (Winner!)

“My neighbor’s telepathic cat intercepted my project notes and posted them as its daily musings on Instagram—now I can’t find the original files!”

This one combined pet interference, tech culture, and social media mischief: a perfect triple-threat that had everyone in stitches.

Takeaway:

“Excuses, Excuses!” is a rapid‐fire, low-stakes way to build divergent thinking, social bonding, and the habit of deferring judgment—all essential for deeper collaborative work. By tweaking it for online tools and keeping a tight eye on timing, you can replicate that creative spark even through a screen.