On Creativity and Technology

It never struck me before the last few classes just how much opportunity technology gives for students to be creative. I’ve only seen a few sets of standards that encourage creativity as NETS for students does (1. Creativity and Innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology) – since creativity is by definition different for each student, it is difficult to regulate and grade, and creates more work for teachers already overloaded with hundreds of assignments to grade. So many teachers assign simple papers or skits or construction-paper projects because those are tried-and-true outlets for student creativity. But what about those whose worst nightmares consist of performing something before the class? What about those who can picture everything they want to convey in their heads but can’t find the words to say it?

Brenda’s comments about using VoiceThread to tell a story were fascinating. I had never considered using the technology in that way. But it occurs to me that storytelling is the perfect way to introduce quite a number of subjects using technology. A presentation, after all, is just a story with a purpose and a defined audience – you still have to figure out the most effective way to convey your information to your audience, and how to do it so that they will be interested. Starting out with storytelling as a frame may help students understand that what they do with their chosen medium (PowerPoint, Prezi, etc.) must enhance the story, not overshadow it. (This goes along with the Communication standard as well: Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.)

More than that, I highly support the idea of using animation to tell stories. A behavior I’ve noticed among my classmates and younger children is using GIFs to express their reaction or feelings about a particular subject; this is not just because pictures tell an eloquent story in a small space, but because movement catches people’s attention and makes the opinion feel more interactive. As we saw during class when we created our own projects using Scratch, animation fascinates people and allows for a lot of creativity. Those whose talents tend towards visual expression might take to animation a lot more readily than writing.

And storytelling is not solely about creative expression, either; many staples of English classes can be covered when doing a creative project. Storytelling requires you to plan out what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it, defining a beginning, middle, and end. You must make the story believable: how are you going to present your argument so that people are interested? Depending on the story, some research may also be involved. Minor details like what historical events the character might be reading about in the newspaper can be starting grounds for enthusiastic searches. Students tend to be more willing to complete a task if it is something they have a personal stake in.

Overall, I believe that using technology to support student creativity is a wonderful idea, and one that may still be in line with course goals.

Diversity and Collaboration

One of the issues I encounter most frequently in standards for learning - whether in AASL Standards for 21st Century Learners, Common Core State Standards, or NETS for Students - is the issue of collaboration. "Collaboration" crops up constantly everywhere from research studies to corporate meetings, and it can be considered one of the buzzwords of the 21st century. But people seem to be vague about what it actually means. Is it assigning each student in the team separate tasks and piecing together the result? Is it asking your neighbor how she/he solved the problem and why they did it that way? Is it incorporating multiple ideas from students into the finished product?

The aim of enforcing standards about collaboration seems to be not only to teach social skills about cooperation and compromise, but to encourage students to consider the viewpoints and opinions of others. AASL spells it out in Learning Standard 2.1.5: "Collaborate with others to exchange ideas, develop new understandings, make decisions, and solve problems." But collaboration can become limited by those you collaborate with. In situations where a small number of students are frequently grouped together - such as ESL students or Advanced Placement students - the students come to know each other fairly well, to the point where they may become able to predict how a discussion or project is going to go as soon as they are grouped together. Another concern is the general makeup of the student population. I attended very liberal schools growing up, and it was difficult to even find a conservative or Republican student to provide another point of view, let alone someone who was well-informed and willing to debate. My cousins grew up in a small town in Michigan that had very few minority students to provide alternate viewpoints, and the political landscape was again very one-sided. What happens when the very act of collaboration does not achieve part of its purpose - to "solicit and respect diverse perspectives" (Standard 3.3.1)?

This is where educational technology can shine. By connecting students with others across the country and the world, online collaboration is uniquely suited to introduce students to perspectives they would never encounter in their daily lives. Sites like ProCon.org offer a range of well-researched stances about current issues for students to consider, and others like Scitable put students in contact with others who may have different takes on what they are learning. People in general tend to only search for information that supports their views, and that is what collaboration is intended to combat in these standards. Technology is invaluable to this cause, giving students firsthand experience with defending their ideas or considering others that may be radically different.