The 3D Didactic is a didactic for creating creative humans. It aims to induce experiences that designs and develops behavior and thinking of individuals and groups. It follows four basic principles:

• All have the same kind of thinking and behavior at all times (parallel thinking)
• One should only focus on the task (task focus)
• There should be no experience of judgement (no experienced judgement)
• Stimulating the use of all kinds of knowledge (horizontal thinking)

3D didactic consists of a series of 3D cases that are short induced experiences. Each 3D case intends to make this change in behavior and thinking by involving the language, the body and the attitude in each exercise:

• 3D cases are designed to change human mental and physical attitude in order to make it easier for individuals and groups to apply their knowledge unlimited
• 3D cases are designed to change bodily response patterns in order to make it easier for individuals and groups to apply their knowledge unlimited
• 3D cases are designed to change the use of language in order to make it easier for individuals and groups to apply their knowledge unlimited.  

3D (dimensional) didactic consist of 3D cases, which are exercises that build up competences in creativity. The practical essence of a 3D case is to totally focus the participants consciousness onto the exercise, leaving no room for other thoughts in his/her mind. He/she becomes so engaged in the task that he/she only experiences what is going on in the exercise leaving no room for reflection of old patterns. The notion is that the more engaged a human becomes in a exercise the more he/she will change behavior and thinking according to the practicing in the exercise. Therefore the learning goal of each exercise should follow cultural, professional and social ethics. 

Learning goal

A 3D case is an exercise where two or more participants perform a task together. It comprises of the purpose of creating an experience with specific learning involved. The learning is always related to the task. 3D cases construct the purposeful change in behavior and thinking of the participants needed for undertaking the task they are working on. Therefore a learning goal in a 3D case can be to celebrate mistakes, to use stimuli spontaneous, to communicate more creatively, to develop the potential of an idea, to avoid judgement of ideas and so on. 3D cases are always constructed using parallel thinking, no-experienced judgement, task focus and horizontal thinking, and they always have an aim of teaching the participants something new by doing it.

While most didactics focus on a reflective treatment of behavior and thinking, the 3D Didactic focus on a physical treatment of behavior and thinking.

• The 3D Didactic is NOT to talk about what's wrong - it is to do what's right. 

Not energizers

This is also what makes 3D cases different from the kind of exercises called energizers. Energizers are also known as ice breakers. Their purpose is to build up energy and to introduce people to each others. Energizers also involve body, language and attitude, and some energisers even follow the principles of parallel thinking, task focused and no-experienced judgement (rarely horizontal thinking). However, the distinction between 3D cases and energisers lies in the purposeful task of learning for the participants in a 3D case. A 3D case is an exercise through which it is possible to learn a new behavior and thinking while energizers creates energy.

Examples

The following 3D case is an example on how to teach the participants to celebrate/accept mistakes made by themselves or made by other participants:

• Stand up
• Pair up with a person who has the same height as yourself
• Put your arms up in the air
• Repeat loudly and energetic after me "Yes, we made a mistake" (repeat this sentence for three to five times)
• We start with a category called car brands, now you should take turns to mention car brands until you make a mistake (say one that has already been said, spend more than 2 seconds to think about the next car brand or simply cannot come up with more car brands)
• When one of you make such a mistake, both of you will celebrate it by screaming "Yes, we made a mistake"
• After making a mistake you decide a new category and continue filling out this new category with the same rules
• The person with the longest hair starts the exercise now
• End the 3D case BEFORE the energy starts to fade again.

The following 3D case is an example on how to teach the participants to apply their knowledge more unlimited:

• Stand up
• Pair up with a person who has the same hand temperature as yourself - shake hands to measure and find the right one
• Take an item from the item box each (the item box contains random items like a door handle, a cup, a USB memory stick, an ashtray, etc.)
• You are about to develop a lot of completely new products in your two-man teams - develop the next version of this product by implementing features/functions/principles from the other item
• When this is done you continue with the item held by the person with the shortest nails
  Start with the item held by the person with the longest nails
• Change the teams randomly to make them try it out with a number of different partners/items.
• End the 3D case BEFORE the energy starts to fade again.

Further understanding of The Creative Platform

It would be a good idea to familiarize yourself thoroughly with the 3D Didactic before you start using it. A good place to start would be the "Conceptualisation of Creativity practices through Action Research: The case of The Creative Platform at Aalborg University". Furthermore we recommend you to read a concept paper on the 3D Didactic "The creative platform: a didactic approach for unlimited application of knowledge in interdisciplinary and intercultural groups" which is published by European Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 34, Nr. 3, 01.06.2009, s. 235-250. In addition, you can find many publications about The Creative Platform here. Some of the publications are in Danish. 

The 3D Didactic can be used in any situation where you need a change in human behavior or thinking.

Each 3D case have a unique learning goal and it is possible to develop new 3D cases with other learning goals based on the concept of 3D Didactic. Therefore the 3D cases are applicable for individuals, groups of people, organisations or other situations.

The 3D Didactic can be used in spontaneous situations where a group have trouble being open minded towards each others ideas – by using some 3D cases that have this as a leaning goal. It can be used in processes where a predefined a clear learning goal has been set beforehand – by putting together a sequence of 3D cases that corresponds with the learning goal. It can also be used for training a specific behavior and/or thinking among a group – by using 3D cases routinely as training exercises similar to training soccer, singing or similar.

The 3D Didactic can be used for training creative, innovative, social, open minded, individual or any other kind of behavior and thinking.

When you want to start using the 3D Didactic it would be a good idea to familiarize yourself thoroughly with it before you start. A good idea is to experiment with using it in situations where you have only little at stake. The more confident you become about using it, the more your participants will understand, feel it and eventually change behavior and thinking.

We have developed some 3D cases and some tools for 3D cases that are available for you under 3D cases and Tools for 3D cases. We hope you will find as much pleasure using the 3D Didactic as we have as well as thousands of teachers, coaches, consultants and others using it already.