photo by Paul Kubalek
“Using the StoryCubes provided me with a realistic business situation in which you have to keep things short and to the point – you face scarcity in the real world and need to put your best face on. The StoryCubes assisted me in defining who I am and exactly where I want to be.”
Tooba Saeed
Student, Cass Business School, City of London University
Back in April Cass Business School and motiroti partnered on Walking, Journeys & Knowledge: an indisciplinary approach: a workshop drawing together different perspectives from research & teaching viewpoints. Followed by The City Walking Bazaar: an exhibition-based event and networking opportunity showcasing different approaches to walking & tours, plus artifacts about journeys both physical and metaphorical. The StoryCubes made by Cass students were on display, and visitors were also encouraged to create their own.
Professor Clive Holtham and Angla Dove have been using the StoryCubes with their students of Masters in Innovation, Leadership and Creativity (MICL) as well as students of BSc Management and BSc Business Studies. Angela explains,
“I introduced the StoryCubes to two groups of business and management students (52 total) taking a module called The Reflective Practitioner. This module is designed in response to potential employers who are looking for a range of more intuitive skills in addition to high level business ‘technical skills’.
Visual expression is an important element of the course. Students were asked to design a personal cube in a highly visual way, and to include their business “passion”, their inspirational person, the flag of their country, and the word “metaphor” in their own mother tongue. The cohort of students is international and drawn from a very wide range of countries and cultures. The idea is to take students beyond more clichéd ways of expressing and representing themselves, such as a standard business card, and also to think creatively. The students drafted out ideas in their Reflective Journals and then translated them on to the cube stickers. The cubes were assembled and much discussion went on about innovative ways of displaying them for their final public exhibition of the whole terms’ work. The choice was made to use a three dimensional structure (a garden gazebo) and to suspend the 52 cubes on cords. Students felt this had more impact than using a table top.
On reading the students’ reflections on this aspect of their work, they speak of having a sense of ownership of their cube, and pride in representing themselves in a personal and visual way. The cube exhibit became a centre piece of the exhibition and a prompt for individual students to talk to guests about their skills and business aspirations.”
Angela Dove
Learning Development Associate for Learning Environments
Fellow of The Learning Development Centre City Of London University
StoryCubes 