Make, Learn, Succeed: Building a Culture of Creativity in Your School - Softcover

Gura, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1564843807 ISBN 13: 9781564843807

Verlag: International Society for Technology in Education, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

In order to adequately prepare students for success in their lifetimes, our schools need to be transformed into environments that encourage students to evolve and develop as creative individuals. Educators are challenged to establish an instructional practice that will encourage and support the development of student creativity as well as meet curricular goals and assessments.

In this book, author Mark Gura shows that yes, creativity can be developed and - with the variety of technology resources currently available - doing so is not only possible, but practical and effective. Through examples and practical approaches the book guides educators in:

• weaving Maker, STEAM, Robotics, and Gaming into Instruction
• encouraging motivation, entrepreneurship, curiosity, and play
• teaching creativity across the curriculum
• finding technology tools and resources to support student creativity

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Mark Gura has been an educator for more than three decades. He works with Touro College, Fordham University, and other organizations to promote the use of technology to provide highly motivating, relevant activities for students. Gura's books include Visual Arts Units for All Levels and Getting Started with LEGO Robotics.

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Chapter 7: Student Creativity and Technology

Moving into a teaching practice that embraces the development of student creativity as a focus is a goal that has likely been worthy and relevant for decades.With the advent of near ubiquitous, user friendly digital technologies that can support all manner of intellectual effort, this goal is both a necessity and something that is more achievable than ever before. With technology comes the element of continually accelerating change, a condition for which preparing students implies developing their ability to create solutions and responses to problems, needs, and situations that arise continually. Further, the same technologies that have contributed to this newly heightened learning need are the tools and resources with which effective responses can be created.
 
This chapter presents some key understandings about how these things may be addressed in the classroom. It examines the specific ways that technology can be applied to student creative work and how technology functions within the context of the types of activities closely associated with such activities and projects. Further, the chapter discusses connections between technology and the sorts of activities found more and more in the evolving intellectual workplace, an environment in which deep thinking, research, and the production and sharing of creative products are becoming essential.

In the article titled “How Can Technology Enhance Student Creativity?” author Saomya Saxena states emphatically:

 
Neuroscience research has proved the fact that all children are born with innate creative powers and as they grow up some of them keep their creativity active while others unconsciously keep it dormant. Hence, all of us from being a child have the potential for great, revolutionary creativity and all we need is to realize this potential. (Saxena, 2013)

In another article, this one appearing in Forbes magazine, titled “The 10 Skills Employers Most Want In 20-Something Employees,” Susan Adams reported that “the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), a Bethlehem, Pa. nonprofit group that links college career placement offices with employers, ran a survey from early August to mid-September where it asked hiring managers what skills they prioritize when they hire college grads … employers seek basic teamwork, problem-solving, and the ability to plan and prioritize” (Adams, 2013).
 
Here are the 10 skills employers say they seek, in order of importance:

1. Ability to work in a team
2. Ability to make decisions and solve problems
3. Ability to plan, organize, and prioritize work
4. Ability to communicate verbally with people inside and outside an organization
5. Ability to obtain and process information
6. Ability to analyze quantitative data 
7. Technical knowledge related to the job
8. Proficiency with computer software
9. Ability to create and/or edit written reports
10. Ability to sell and influence others

 
Most of these skills either relate directly to the development of student creativity— including problem solving and innovation—or they strongly relate to skills involved in the act of creation and work on creative projects (Adams, 2013).
 
Another article, this one from the IBM website, titled “IBM 2010 Global CEO Study: Creativity Selected as Most Crucial Factor for Future Success,” states:
 
According to a major new IBM survey of more than 1,500 Chief Executive Officers from 60 countries and 33 industries worldwide, chief executives believe that—more than rigor,

 

management discipline, integrity or even vision—successfully navigating an increasing complex world will require creativity. (IBM, 2010)
 
An online search will reveal many similar findings reported in a never-ending stream of such articles. At the very least, these often-heard assertions represent something that today’s educators should ponder as they continue on their planning and preparation for the educational experience they provide their students. The message is clear, though, and now that we have determined that the development of student creativity is a crucial next step in the evolution of the instructional program provided by our schools, the specifics of how to address this need will have to be carefully considered.
 
As I mentioned, I began my career as a public school visual art teacher. After many years of involvement with that subject and a strong interest in the integration of visual art across the curriculum, I gradually became more and more involved in the field of instructional technology. This has afforded me a focused understanding of how the area of student creativity and the area of technology support teaching and learning intersect.
 
Many teachers never really consider the dynamics of teaching art, and they often assume that it is “easy to teach” because it is “fun.” It has been my experience that such opinions are based on unfounded, untested assumptions, assumptions that are incorrect. It is not true that all students necessarily love to make art. Many sim- ply are not interested in art activities, although they may find a little uncommit-  ted dabbling to be amusing. Learning to make art, to focus on craft, message, and meaning is a serious undertaking that requires focus, effort, and the ability to press through frustration and difficulty. Simply understanding the works of great artists, alone, can take a good deal of head scratching and brain stretching. Creating origi- nal works can be infinitely more difficult. It may superficially appear that “playing” with poster paint is just that, play. But the truth is a skillful teacher must coax and coach students through the complex processes involved in making meaningful, communicative, expressive works of art.
 
In the context of an arts course, for instance, when working with students who have been assigned an appropriate and worthwhile learning challenge, one can easily observe students who experience frustration. They may find that when they are expected to deal with producing a response or attempting a solution to an open ended challenge, one for which there is no clear right answer, but one for which a unique, personal response, one that will be measured against defined criteria, is frustrating. Effective learning challenges, by the way, are very often those intended to push the envelope of student understanding and ability. In other words they are designed to provoke a student response that requires a bit of a stretch, intellectually and otherwise.

 
Further, one easily observes significant frustration with the craft portion of the challenge, the need to draw or sculpt an acceptable visual representation of something, for instance, or perhaps to write a clear and insightful description of some- thing. The irony is that in order to respond to the assigned challenge, the student must have at hand a sufficient level of competency of the craft to be employed in creating the required product or performance. It is common for students to give  up before they even begin to try if they sense that the undeveloped level of their skills will result in embarrassing failure. The effect of this is multiplied and com- plicated when students realize that after working on their product or performance for a considerable period of time, they are disappointed with their own work. After the expenditure of much time and effort, they might be facing certain failure even if they apply more time and effort to the project. And yet more time and energy must be expended should they decide to start over to successfully complete an assignment.
 
We are talking about months or years invested in developing the skills of represen- tational drawing, learning the notes and scales and chords and theory required to play an instrument, learning the grammar and punctuation and voice rules and conventions to write effectively, and on and on. This is the truth of engaging in the arts, and the sciences, too, if one considers how mathematics and rules of mechanics, electronics, and engineering often dictate even entry level participation in them. Small wonder that experienced art teachers and others attempting to foster creativ- ity in students have to develop a portfolio of approaches. Needless to say, striking a balance can involve offering students experiences of lesser worth. No doubt any subject that involves hard-to-acquire craft/skills, discipline, and sophisticated self-management requires similar considerations.
 
However, we live in a remarkable age in which technology has transformed the experience of being creative. Technology can empower students to produce sophisticated, highly appealing, professional looking products without the need for talent, for difficult-to-acquire skills, and without great effort. Graphics, artistic images, word processed and desktop published texts, videos, animations, voice and musical recordings, and more are now commonly produced by students of all ability levels, even young ones.

However, when one looks at the works of visual artists like M. C. Escher, Norman Rockwell, or Andrew Wyeth; at the photos of Edward Weston; the comic strips of Charles Schulz or the graphic novels of Neil Gaiman; listens to the music of Marvin Hamlisch; the voice recordings of actors and orators; and on and on, what comes across is that the craft, as well as the product the craft has been employed to produce, are vehicles for something else, something more. I am referring to the message, the statement, the body of ideas communicated. True, the craft and the product may be part and parcel of this, but they are only that: an essential element.

 
Following this logic we can see how the emergence of technology, a body of resources that provides for the user the skill and craft needed, and its remarkable level of ease and certainty, has liberated the technology user from the effort to develop these skills. The technology user is free to concentrate on the message and meaning, the creativity for which the entire enterprise is directed.
 
10 Ways Technology Supports ans Fosters the Developement of Student Creativity

1. Saving unlimited versions and drafts. One of the ways that technology supports creativity is by allowing for multiple, no-risk trials and versions of experiments. In the past, each draft or early version of an original product or solution was precious. Once an attempt that altered the piece was taken, the creator would have found it very dif?cult to return to the earlier version if the new stage turned out to be a path that didn’t lead to the desired ?nal result. With technology, work can be saved at every stage, allowing for endless trials and stages. This permits the creator to try different things without risk of losing his or her work and momentum.
2. Randomizing and presenting quick prompts and associations. With so much material available on the web and so many ways to retrieve and organize it, generating prompts and suggestions of ideas is far easier than before. Using a search engine, for instance, a creator can enter a single random or focused search word and generate countless unanticipated responses, pairings, and associations with other ideas.
3. Stimulating creativity through technology's capabilities and characteristics. In many cases, simply working and interacting with a technology tool can suggest creative direc-tions to take or innovative possibilities previously not imagined. Tech tools work quickly and tirelessly and often lend their own ?avor to content, organizing, formatting, and giving style to work just started or in progress.
4. Organizing and facilitating the creative processes through the use of graphic organizers, ?ow charts, and related digital resources. Found in abundance as features of common digital resources like word processors (e.g., MS Word) and/or as (often) free and readily accessible online, a wide variety of information organizing tools are available to users (e.g., alphabetizing, frequency sorting, numbering and hierarchy creating, and so on). As well, visual representational organizing tools (e.g., ?ow charts, semantic maps, organizational charts, tree hierarchies, and more) can truly empower creators.
5. Producing satisfying, professional looking products quickly and easily. Many tech tools produce products that require little hard-earned “craft knowledge” to generate (e.g., word processing/desktop publishing, slide presentations, photo albums, comic strips, animations and animated avatars, and so on). These tools encourage and provide momentum for creators, and help them visualize the evolving shape and impact of their work and see previously unimagined possibilities.
6. Facilitating collaboration. One of the core functions of technology is that of facilitat- ing communication between people. Today’s tech tools make communication easier and possible in ways previously not imagined (e.g., Skype video calls), and help organize it by creating virtual spaces in which groups can meet privately and exchange information in numerous formats in ways not previously possible.
7. Providing opportunities for sharing. One of the reasons to create products and solutions is to present it, ultimately, to an audience (or a group of users in the case of a functional item). Our new, technology-fueled world makes this possible in a great many effective ways. These include formatting original work in ways to generate profession- al-appearing products; posting text, images, and audio in virtual public spaces (e.g.,blogs); open libraries (e.g., YouTube); and allowing for the creation of emailing lists, RSS, and Twitter feeds, and so forth. Using technology, presenting work to an audience is easy, effective, and becomes a well-integrated part of the continuum of steps that make up the end-to-end ?ow of a creative project.
8. Allowing for instantaneous feedback. In many instances technology resources include functions that allow an audience to respond to what’s been presented to them (e.g., comments functions of blogs and media sharing resources like YouTube). An audience may also respond to online content by taking advantage of “contact” functions and information (e.g., email addresses) provided by content posters. Social media takes this function of technology a step further by sharing the actual content and resulting feed- back with a focused audience.
9. Supporting the capture and archiving of drafts, versions, presentations of a product, and performances, as well as the retrieval of each. In many ways, the ability to capture an element to add to a project/product (e.g., image, sound bite, passage of text, and the like) empowers the creator and expands the possibilities of both the creative process and product. Many items are easily accessible and freely available that make this so (e.g., smartphone stills and video cameras, snip and screen capture software, OS functions of computers and tablets, digital audio recorders, and so on). Once captured, today’s devices make storing the material easy. Organizing and retrieving them from digital stor- age is easily accomplished with a variety of search functions.
10. Enabling ongoing, process-oriented creativity. Technology supports process oriented creativity, a variety of approach that involves a series of phases that may culminate in both a ?nished product and in a subsequent cycle of work to produce ongoing, next generation products or solutions. Consequently, a broad range of technology connec- tions to creative work, which, beyond the advantages they present on their own, con- tribute to a cycle of next step creative planning and work. These include:

• production of multiple versions of outlines, storyboards, trials, and drafts;
• collections of feedback on drafts;
• collaboration of co-creators;
• research into what's been created before;
• the presentation of the finished work to an audience or user group and the collection and analysis of their feedback;
• based on the above, initial steps in the subsequent cycle of phases of the next generation of creative work or project.

 
In the Forbes magazine tech blog post titled “How Technology Enhances Creativity,” author Greg Satell states: “Technology enhances creativity, it drastically reduces the cost of actualizing our intent. We can search domains, mix and match ideas and test concepts almost effortlessly. That means we can try out a lot more possibilities and increase the chance of producing something truly outstanding” (Statell, 2014).
 
Students today can produce comic strips that rival in skill and craft (as shown in Figure 7.1) of a professional by using easy-to-acquire (and often free), very user- friendly resources like Pixton (pixton.com), ToonDoo (toondoo.com), and many oth-   ers that are found easily online. Using a resource like buncee (buncee.com), students can create a new format of creative product, one we might call “digital poster,” that mixes images, graphic elements, and text in ways that rival fine examples of classic poster art. These works can also feature sound and animation, resulting in products that even the most accomplished poster artists of the 19th and 20th centuries could never have imagined.

 

Can Technology Be Anti-Creative?
 
In his probing article in Educational Leadership titled “Power Up! Technology and the Illusion of Creativity”, Doug Johnson raises some useful questions. First he ponders, “When technology enables a person to make something that looks professional without having to master any degree of craft, does that increase or decrease the likelihood of creativity?” (Johnson, 2014)
 
This is a good question, but unless we take the position that the craft aspect of a work of art, or any original creation for that matter, is the end and not the means to that end, then the answer to this is a resounding “No!” If we take a look at the art of photography, for instance, we can see a good example of image making  that requires little physical training. In fact, the image in every way is made by a machine. It is the photographer’s job, though, to select subject, to select the angle and size at which the camera captures the subject and its background, to determine if the lighting is suitable, and so on. Operating the camera requires little beyond pushing a button. In earlier days, camera technology required photographers to adjust aperture and exposure and depth of field. Today, it is most common for cameras to do those things automatically, and countless fine art photographs have been taken with such cameras. That photographers produce a compelling image with modern cameras without struggle does not sacrifice nor negate the creativity involved and expressed through photography.
 
Johnson further ponders, “And can educators be lulled into a false impression that they have been developing creativity in students when using technologies that pro- duce brilliant-looking results?” Another very useful question, as it brings us back to the appropriate starting point query of asking ourselves, “What is creativity?” The answer is that creativity is not the product or performance, it is the skill set and act of bringing something new and original into the world that is at the heart of what is creative. And, of course, it goes further than that because for us to notice something new and appreciate its impact, it must be meaningful, significant, and offer value. Following the example of a “word cloud” produced using Wordle (wordle. net), a creativity tool that has garnered tremendous attention with teachers because it is free, very easily accessed, and very easy to use, and because it relates to literacy skills, the most core of all curriculum focused on by schools, we can see two possibilities of what students may produce with it: a) an impressive looking but meaningless product, or b) a product that on examination communicates under- standings, meaning, insight, and a bit of sparkle. It isn’t the craft performed by the resource or the user of the resource that makes the difference between the two; it’s the thinking, resourcefulness, and innovative expression carried by the craft.

 
The overarching point in all of this, however, is that through the use of technology students are freed from the labor, frustration, and limitations of craft so that they can effectively concentrate on the other aspects of creativity, the ones that count most and that we teachers must address.
 
How Technology Supports Creativity and Creators Beyond the issue of craft, there are other ways that technology supports, assists, and empowers students in the area of creativity. Here are a few of them:
 
DEEP SUPPORT FOR THINKING
Technology is available to provide support in the crucial area of thinking that accompanies and drives creativity. Numerous varieties of thinking are involved and can be drawn on in the creative process, among them brainstorming, role playing, associating, randomizing, and so on.
 
RESEARCH
If one is to create something new, it is essential to know if it has not been done before. Even more essential, perhaps, is to know who else has worked on the idea and what angles others have taken to explore it and what sorts of prod-  ucts have already been produced in response. It is also necessary to find materials with which to shape and flesh out creative ideas. Research is a practical  and effective way to address these concerns. Certainly, simple searches, like the use of search engines, is an important part of this research. However, there are other approaches and resources that support creativity. Among these are Google Alerts (google.com/alerts), emailed notices of freshly posted information on subjects identified by the user; and direct collection of information by the researcher, which can be supported by technology, as well, with such tools as Survey Monkey (surveymonkey.com) to create, disseminate, collate and analyze informational responses, and Evernote (evernote.com) to record, store, and retrieve observations and anecdotal information. All of these resources offer at least a basic level of service free.

 
COPING WITH THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Discovering that creative ideas and products don’t simply come from bolt-from- the-blue Eureka moments of inspiration but can be generated predictably by the use of a variety of processes is both inspiring and empowering. Technology helps the creator use and benefit from the structure of these processes (e.g., the writing process, the design process, and so forth). These processes are especially important in our current era of group and project-based work, a phenomenon borne out in actual practice by some of the most forward thinking and successful companies today, like Apple and Google.
 
SHARING PRODUCTS  AND  PERFORMANCES
The element of having an audience to whom to present the results of the creative act elevates the act and process of creativity considerably, particularly within the context of learning. Having an audience lends a sense of importance to creative projects. Understanding that the work will be viewed and evaluated naturally motivates students to produce solutions and products and performances that impress others as being original, significant, and of high quality. Further, in process oriented Creativity, an ongoing sequence of conception, trials or drafts, and then refinements  and more advanced versions is empowered and enriched by feedback on what’s been created thus far. Audience feedback can be a valuable source of information on how well a draft solution satisfies the challenge it was created to address.
 
Resources to support students in sharing their creative work with an audience may enhance or frame the work allowing others to see it in its best light, provide a place in which to display or provide access to the audience, and may gather information about the audience, or elicit and relay audience comments about the work back to the student and/or others. This last point may be important as an audience member interested in giving feedback may want to comment on previ- ous comments or take them into consideration when forming his own. All of this can be useful in the ongoing life of a project or creative effort as it works toward its conclusion.
 
Technology provides a great deal in this regard. There are a variety of web-based resources that may be used for the above purposes:

• Photo /Graphics Sharing Resources. Photo sharing sites like Flickr (flickr.com), Picasa Web Albums (picasaweb.google.com/home), ShutterFly (shutterfly.com), and others allow for users to upload photos and share them with others. Most of these resources allow for a variety of sharing and privacy options. Many of them allow for users to add captions to photos, as well. These sites, while intended for photos will take uploads of any ?le in common graphics formats like JPG or GIF, allowing students who scan creative work, photograph it, or who convert ?le formats, to upload such work, as well.
• Audio Sharing Resources: Resources like SoundCloud (soundcloud.com/upload), allow users to upload and share their audio ? les either by the link or an embed-dable “player” they provide. The offer a number of publishing and privacy options.  Some, like Clyp It (clyp.it/) allow for audio to be recorded directly on their site from a connected student device and provide a link to the recording for use elsewhere. Others, like Vocaroo (vocaroo.com), allow users to record or upload previously recorded and edited ? les for sharing.
• Video Sharing Resources: YouTube allows users to upload videos and choose from a variety of options about who can view them. There are numerous alternatives, like TeacherTube (www.teachertube.com) and SchoolTube (www.schooltube.com)
• Text Sharing Resources: Google Drive is a free, easy to use resource that allows users to upload ?les and choose from a variety of options about who can view, download, or alter it. There are numerous alternatives, like SlideShare (slide-share.net), and issuu (issuu.com)
• Multi-Format Publishing Resources allow for the above to be combined. The perfect example of this for the purpose of sparking and supporting student creative work is the blog. Blogger, for instance, allows students to upload their writing in an attractive and professional-looking online publishing format. Graphics as well as audio, video, and text widgets are easily embedded. The comments feature allows for audience (including the teacher) to respond with text comments, and for other audience members, as well as the poster, to respond to those comments. KidBlog is another blog resource option, among many to choose from (kidblog.org/home.)

See the resource section in Part Four of this book for more options and ideas.

 

INTERVIEW
Brittany Howell
Brittany is a literacy and family learning specialist with the National Center for Families Learning, the organization that produces and provides Wonderopolis. I invited Brittany to present Wonderopolis alongside the Literacy Professional Learning Network at ISTE’s annual conference and interviewed her there. On its website, Wonderopolis describes itself as "Where the Wonders of Learning Never Cease. Explore. Imagine. Laugh. Share. Create. Learn. Smile. Grow."
 
MG: What is Wonderopolis, and how do teachers use it?
 
BH: Wonderopolis is a free online resource loved by families, educators, and students alike. Wonderopolis is visited by more than 640,000 users monthly, equaling more than 12 million users since Wonderopolis’ inception. The only requirement to use it is that you have internet access.
 
MG: Can you give me an idea of what teachers find at Wonderopolis?
 
BH: There is a new Wonder of the Day (an exploration of a curious question) that’s uploaded every weekday. In the summer we host Camp Wonderopolis, our free online summer-learning camp. Wonderopolis is about thinking, wondering, and appreciating what an incredible world this is and how much there is to learn and think about. Wonderopolis does that in a format that supports sharing and trading ideas.
 
MG: What’s the Wonderopolis approach to sparking students’ imaginative thinking?
 
BH: We like to say that wonder is all around us, for anyone, at any time. What we love to celebrate at Wonderopolis are those everyday, curious questions that we all have but that we don’t ordinarily take the time to explore. That becomes the basis of what we do at Wonderopolis.
 
MG: That sounds great, but how do you support teachers in making that part of the school day? Teachers are busy, and there are so many things to keep track of. How do you get some of the teachers’ bandwidth?
 
BH: You can sign up to have the Wonder of the Day emailed to you and/or your students. Teachers often make this the basis of some of the work they do with their class. All of the new Wonder questions, by the way, are user generated; the Wonder questions are sent in by the users in response to our invitation to con- tribute to the Wonder Bank, a body of questions that users have contributed (now well over 34,000). We also acknowledge the person, student or teacher, who sent in the Wonder question.

 
MG: Beside the Wonder of the Day, what other things will teachers and students find at Wonderopolis to pique their curiosity and wonder and inspire them to think imaginatively and, hopefully, be creative?
 
BH: One of Wonderopolis’ features is a Media Gallery of images and videos— each Wonder features a video and photographic images related to the Wonder question, offering a multimedia approach to the Wonder topic.
 
MG: While Wonder, Imagination, and Creativity are qualities of thinking, know- ing, and learning that are high goals for teachers and students, one favored approach to foster these things within the context of instruction is to align  them to the learning of required bodies of knowledge and skills. Does Won- deropolis have things to help in this regard, as well?
 
BH: The video and images are entertaining and illustrative, so that they are easy to understand. Vocabulary is important in education, and we provide vocab- ulary and definitions for words that appear in the informational text passage. The Wonder Words are sorted by ability levels and presented in a dynamic way. The words are highlighted in the text provided, and if you hover your cursor over the words, you’ll get the definition. Then after you finish, you can take the Wonder Word Challenge, which is a randomized interactive game to check understanding of the vocabulary words. At the end of every Wonder there’s a Did You Get It? reading comprehension exercise as well. Each Wonder will also read the words aloud to you and highlight the text as it is read aloud, if you activate that function. This enables readers of all abilities to be more indepen- dent of direct teacher support.
 
Students can practice digital citizenship skills by joining the discussion on each Wonder of the Day and submitting comments to Wonderopolis that express their thinking through their writing—writing that will be seen by others. Each comment then receives a personalized response from Wonderopolis encourag- ing students to continue wondering and learning.
 

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: International Society for Technology in Education
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1564843807
• ISBN 13: 9781564843807
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 220
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar