I've been digging again...
As I said in my last post, I've been rather pleasantly surprised at how much has been published in the last several years on creativity and learning styles. I'd thought at the outset that, perhaps, IDD and educational psychology viewed creativity studies as "fluffy," but I'm really not finding much of that attitude (of course, the quest has only just begun).
What I am finding is a lot of discussion of creativity and how it helps drive gifted students in their learning styles. I've found articles on this going back quite far. Only recently, it seems, has there been serious pursuit of using creativity studies in the students at the opposite end of the spectrum, those who are considered by many to be "underachievers" or "at risk." It seems to me that this is a natural fit--these students need to be taught in more creative ways because the standard methods have not worked for them. And with teaching them to think more creatively (as in advanced problem solving), according to the articles I've been scanning today, many of these "problem" students have excelled in surprising areas (such as math and science).
Then there are the articles about the use of creativity in teaching ESL students--many many articles, all basically spouting the same message to instructors--"think outside the box" when teaching culturally diverse groups. While there may be some nuggets of gold in there as far as suggestions to ESL instructors, the basic underlying theme of them all left me with a "one for the
duh file" impression, meaning that it should be obvious that ESL instructors approach teaching multi-cultural students in new and refreshing ways (and not necessarily the same methods they'd use on their native English speaking students).
I'm still going through the articles relating creativity with technilogical/multimedia advances. The ones that link creativity with motivation with digital media (and there are a few) are of primary interest to me and I want to post a writeup on each separately in order to document them for future reference.
...Until that time...
Searching the big, wide web...
...I've been pleasantly surprised just how many people are interested in creativity and how it affects learning styles (and vice versa). Back when I was teaching College Composition, my interest in creativity was put up with by my peers and bosses, though not necessarily encouraged (except when it came to those "non-academic" assignments). I think many in the field of composition studies view creativity as "fluffy" or perhaps the bastard red-headed stepchild of "serious" rhetoric.
That said, I'm not finding the same attitude when it comes to instructional design and educational media. Take this article I just came across:
Creating Creativity: User Interfaces for Supporting InnovationI'd never really thought about differing "types" of creativity, but Schneiderman breaks it down into three categories: Inspirational (the category I happen to fall into the majority of the time), structuralists, and situationalists. He goes on to write about different creativity levels: revolutionary, impromptu and evolutionary creativity. The article focuses mostly on the third. Oddly enough, he calls creativity "dangerous" to some, because the very act of promoting creativity and learning to the general public can "change employment patterns, educational systems, and community norms" (p 119). While this could be a good thing, to those in power who it might effect, it could obviously be a negative.
Schneiderman uses a four-phase "genex" approach:
(1) New knowledge is built on previous knowledge
(2) Powerful tools can support creativity
(3) Refinement is a social process
(4) Creative work is not complete until it is disseminated. (p 120)
which he translates into:
—Collect: learn from previous works stored in libraries, the Web, etc.
—Relate: consult with peers and mentors at early, middle, and late stages
—Create: explore, compose, and evaluate possible solutions
—Donate: disseminate the results and contribute to the libraries. (p 120)
He goes on to demonstrate what needs to happen in interface technology to promote user creativity (of the three types mentioned). I wish all the examples he uses still was in working order. Alas, this is not the case. At least two, however, are still operational, though the businesses behind them have changed since the article was originally published.
The BrainMindManagerWhile much of the article is still "over my head" techical ability-wise, I wanted to catalog it here for future reference for when I do reach the stage that I'm designing such interfaces.
A New Year, another outlook on learning
I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing with this blog. I know that the connection between creativity and higher learning interests me. Taking that notion and applying it to multi-media tools interests me even more. Hopefully, I can explore this area, venture out, collect and sample articles, events, etc that will "flesh out" this concept to me and post them here.
