Promoting Creativity in Learning

According to Newsweek, Americans are in the middle of a "Creativity Crisis."  What exactly does this mean and what can we do about it?  To better understand, we need to first define creativity.  Webster's states, "Creativity is the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods and interpretations."  In other words, be original and innovative!  

Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William & Mary analyzed over 300,000 Torrance scores from children and adults.  Torrance scores are one of the standard measures used to quantify creativity.  After analysis, Kim found creative scores were on the rise until the 1990's, but have recently suffered a great decline.  The steepest decline found to be among elementary school students.

Why? Experts are tossing around many possible contributing factors.  Two of the top contenders are the strong emphasis on standardized testing in American schools and the amount of "screen time" children spend playing video games and watching television.  Both factors stifle creativity and promote physical and mental laziness.

What's the answer?  I am not sure there is one definitive solution to this problem.  Personally, I see nothing wrong with a certain amount of "gaming" or with catching a few flicks.  In our house, Mythbusters rules, animating is the favored artistic pursuit and Lego Universe sparks the topic of the next "at-home" Lego battle.   I feel one of the main problems, though, is children are not allowed enough unstructured, free time at home and are not given opportunities to think at school. 

When I think back to childhood, I recall having time to play, think and explore.  Countless hours were spent playing outside in make-believe worlds, reading books, drawing and choreographing dances.  I found myself interested in activities where I was actively engaged in "doing" something.  It was during these times, I feel creativity flourished.  My parents allowed me time to explore, encouraged me to read and express my opinions and provided me with opportunities to develop my interests.  Why can't education today be the same?

The real question is how can we as educators promote and encourage creativity in our children and students.  The first step is to create an atmosphere that fosters creativity by encouraging dialogue, expression and exploration.  Secondly, we should get kids moving!  Countless studies cite the benefits of exercise not only as a means to improve physical fitness, but to develop greater mental acuity.  Finally, we should move away from traditional "drill-n-kill," test-driven methodologies towards problem-based learning that promotes critical thinking and collaboration.

Easy, right?  Granted, I know that change does not happen overnight and change on this scale may take some time.  However, we can all begin to take baby steps in the right direction.  A simple beginning would be to encourage curiosity and exploration both at home and school.  My mother's favorite response when I asked her how to spell a word was simply "Look it up."  She was not being inattentive.  Quite the contrary!  She allowed me time to figure something out for myself and to take charge of my own learning.  Classrooms and learning situations should do the same.  The problems we face today and those of tomorrow will require creative solutions.  Let's work together to promote creativity rather than complacency.  After all, "there's nothing like the mind of a child."

Digital Learning for the 21st Century Student

Many educators are spending time this January reflecting on the past year.  For me, I am completely amazed at the integral role technology plays in the education of our children.  Even our three year old, can log onto PBS Kids and navigate his way around.  Just like many modern classrooms, it would be impossible for us to return to the "old ways."  Let me explain.

A typical day for us begins with the children going to our class webpage and checking their assignments.  I create weekly lessons for each child using the spreadsheet in Google Docs and post them on Sundays.  This serves as an electronic assignment pad and is essential to all of us staying on track.  I can quickly make changes as needed for each child and it is automatically updated on our website.  So cool!  From there, they navigate to various "online learning environments" such as Time4Learning, Spelling City or BrainPop to complete daily assignments. 

Each child has their own gmail account so that I can create tests or reviews using the "forms" option in Google Docs.  Also, I have used the "share" feature in Google Docs to establish a writer/editor relationship with our fourth grader.  As she types her writing assignments, I am able to edit and send them quickly back to her before anything is ever printed.  Amazing!

Learning has taken on an entirely new look for our children.  It's going digital!  When asked to brainstorm, they turn to wallwisher, create wordles or make flow maps in bubbl.  When asked to define or explain a term, they "google it," use eyeplorer, visuwords or wikipedia.  When asked to write a summary or do research, they create interactive reports using scratch, make animoto movies or digital posters using glogster.  Books are still read, however, digital versions are explored using Google books and even our iPod Touch.  Our fourth grader began blogging and our second grader is curious about stop-motion animation.  Drawing is a favorite around here, but programs like Anime Studio, Manga Debut, Tux Paint, Acorn, and Scratch bring these drawings to life.  In addition to "paper and pencil", stories are created on Storybird, art is created using a Bamboo tablet, journal time is inspired by images on Flickr and spelling words are turned into works of art using Spell With Flickr.  Wow!

With the world at our fingertips, children today are truly part of a global community.  Just this past semester, our children were able to take virtual field trips using Google Earth, correspond with people all over the world, and attend a "live" webcast from the Clearwater Aquarium as they honored Winter, the dolphin.  In addition, we were able to research global customs and relive history through many fascinating, online resources. 

Our children, like students all over the world, are experiencing the changing face of education first-hand.  21st century learning centers around technology and is cultivated through critical thinking.  The student of today needs to be able access, process, analyze and effectively communicate the wealth of information that is readily available to them.  Many classes use wiki's, twitter and other social networking tools to allow for collaboration and stimulate creative thinking.  Through this collaborative process, students (and teachers) are able to develop clarity and lucidity in the expression of ideas while learning the importance of peer evaluation.  Learning becomes more student-centered and the teacher plays the role of facilitator. 

Digital learning is revolutionizing the landscape of modern education.  In a world where preschoolers are learning phonics on iPods and elementary students are writing programs to create interactive reports, educators need to be in tune to the rapidly changing needs of the 21st-century student.  As I reflect on the future learning of our own children, I hope I can provide them with meaningful experiences that fuel their creativity, ignite a passion for learning and ultimately develop their critical thinking.