Creativity in the Classroom and Beyond

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Students learn what they practice, whether it is f2f or digitally. Mostly, teachers instruct the way they have learned. For most of history this has been a closed loop in formal education. Creativity is something that happened outside of the scope of a structured, formal education. The movement away from information transmission oriented pedagogy toward a constructionist pedagogy is a move toward opening the cycle to allow for creativity.

Typically we think of creativity as a rather rare event that occurs when the muse bestows inspiration upon some special person. Having students participate in the construction of their own understanding builds creativity into the learning cycle of all students. Holding students accountable to not only understand the core learning but to develop an understanding of what value they can add. Information is ubiquitous, innovation less so. The economics of supply and demand tells us to foster the latter in order to add the most value to our students.

As teachers and learners share a digital experience the scales that weigh the value of information preservation vs. information evolution have shifted. This is evident in the adjustments that have been made in copyright. Digital tools have facilitated access to information as well as the ability to alter this information. Users of technology have utilized the ability to copy and alter information so readily that such events are common place. While intellectual property rights persist, they now allow for limited use and alteration in digital media under new guidelines. Value added and creative use are central to use of "protected" information.

As the amount of creativity in a class increases so does the student engagement.  Creativity is self-actualizing. It is inherently rewarding to creatively contribute. The extreme examples that support this view are the sacrifices that artists make as they create. The creative experience engages the student as part of a real intellectual pursuit of developing ideas if they are engaged in correspondence on published digital spaces. These digital creative experiences can be scaffolded as smaller experiences within the classroom environment and expanded to public creative experiences, much like real world experiences are expanded over time as students develop and display capacity for engagement in a larger environment.

Online Teaching and Learning

The most important reason to understand online teaching and learning is....

that if it is implemented properly it enables students to have access to resources which provide quality learning opportunities beyond the school day. If the course is designed properly then the students have greater access to content, assessments, and feedback.  However, it is not the availability of instructional material that determines the amount of learning but the quality of the instruction. It is important to understand online instruction because effective educational practices will determine the quality of the learning experience, not whether the learning experience is face-to-face, blended, or online.