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Operation PSA: The Action Learning of Curiosity and CreativityStep 7: Action-learning DocumentationAlthough team members had learned to operate the VideoThang and Winkmedia systems, and realized the potential of such educational endeavors, the realtest of action learning would entail the application of the group’s diverse talentsto produce a boundary-spanning PSA about a novel or unfamiliar situation.Therefore, instead of using the previously delineated questions for faculty PSAsregarding the discipline (Appendix A), it was imperative that the focus for thisPSA arise from the conference itself, as sessions were attended, new friendshipsformed, and remarks about the state of teaching public administration wereshared. True enough, one resounding question arose: Why weren’t there moreattendees for a conference devoted to the teaching of public administration?Using this troublesome condition as a stimulus for action, the team set outto gain participants’ motivations for coming to the conference and ideasregarding how they might go about marketing it to newcomers. By the end ofthe first day’s sessions, 15 video clips had been shot, with a total time of 15.33minutes. Still, it would take another 7-10 hours for them to be reviewed,edited, and aligned with music into a persuasive PSA. At this point, however,the PSA was only two-thirds complete. The team presented this preliminaryvideo to various conferees and asked for suggestions about developing greaterparticipation for the next conference. Through five additional clips and another2.33 minutes, the team had all materials necessary for generating a compositePSA that reflected TPAC and its future ambitions, as shown in its transcripts(Appendix D).Creativity has been defined as an interactive process composed of ability andstimulation (Gowan, 1975). In order to determine the degree to whichconferees experienced and developed these abilities, the notion of creativity wasbroached in the team’s first question, “What was your motivation for coming tothe Teaching Public Administration Conference?” While all respondentsidentified personal experiences, the team members captured the importance ofinteraction through one participant’s need to see “colleagues eyeball-to-eyeballand hear what they’re doing in their classes…because their ideas give me fresh,new ideas about what I can do” (Appendix D, Respondent #1, May 2008).Another case highlighted how participants were re-energized by colleagues who“are all very exciting people committed to the one thing of teaching publicadministration. They’re not out to impress anyone. They’re out to share theirexperiences” (Appendix D, Respondent #2, May 2008). The theme underlyingthese statements was the role of interpersonal sensitivity in advancing teaching.The second question, “How would you go about marketing this conference?,”although somewhat similar in nature to the last query, focused participants’thoughts on branding the uniqueness of the conference, its goals, and mission.To that end, the team chose the response of one individual who put it quitepointedly, by saying the “professional responsibility of most faculty goes into372 Journal of Public Affairs Education
Operation PSA: The Action Learning of Curiosity and Creativitythree categories: service, research, and teaching. And this is the only conferencethat addresses one-third of our professional responsibility in helping us to buildskills in teaching” (Appendix D, Respondent #8, May 2008). When this responsewas coupled with the following, the branding of this conference was undeniable.You’ve got to meet the people who love teaching public administration.You’re going to gain something here that I don’t think you’re going toget anywhere else—a love for teaching, a passion for teaching, all kindsof ideas about how to teach. It’s not about content. It’s about how you’regoing to make differences in people’s lives (Appendix D, Respondent#1, May 2008).The third question of “What you can do…” was aimed at the power ofmedia sources and technology to connect present and future attendees. Thefirst interviewee provided a suggestion for employing technology as the conduitfor change.We think people need to create a tree structure by collecting thedirector’s names for the NASPAA schools and having the videosannounced and distributed through those directors, especially to Ph.D.students and adjunct professors in addition to the regular faculty(Appendix D, Respondent #9, May 2008).The second respondent reiterated the same theme with the following call:As a champion of teaching excellence in public administration, yourcharge is to take this PSA, upload it onto your website, and distribute itas broadly as possible. And, of course, come to the next TPAC[Teaching Public Administration] conference (Appendix D, Respondent#10, May, 2008).In the first statement, the appeal for mobility and action was directed at theadministrative levels of the discipline. By contrast, the latter statement made asimple request for all attendees to become “champions” of public administrationand make a personal commitment to ensuring the conference’s endeavors.Action learning is vested within a group’s ability to develop resolutions forunfamiliar problems in a timely fashion. Generating a final PSA reflecting thepassion of the conferees and their urgency for resolving issues of pedagogy,curricula, and convention attendance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugf9nzZcxko) — all within less than two days — posed a perfect illustration ofthe power of action learning. As with the undergraduate PSA discussed earlier,the respondents in the final PSA were just as ardent in their illustration of theelements of creativity, branding, and technology surrounding the conference.Journal of Public Affairs Education 373
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