Post on 30-Oct-2014
description
Do schools kill creativity?
Ask a class of first graders “Are you creative?”
Ask a class of tenth graders “Are you creative?”
What have we done to these children?
Image: 'ijc' http://www.flickr.com/photos/23474554@N00/3561179958
!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fwp/148695815/
Quantity?
Quality?
Creativity is...In small groups, finish this sentence.
Write down as many variations as you wish.
We will share them with the group later.
Image: 'My Brain on MRI' http://www.flickr.com/photos/48600090482@N01/22584430
We have never needed creativity as much as we do
right now
Seymour Papert
We need to produce people who know how to act when they’re faced with
situations for which they were not specifically prepared.
The Value of PlayCuriosity
Idea StartersOffering ChoiceCombining Ideas
The Value of PlayCuriosity
Idea StartersOffering ChoiceCombining Ideas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92981392@N00/12944421/
Watch the whole talk at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzCfUvWD0Q4
Evan Kidd - PsychologistRecorded at TEDx Sydney 2012
20%
50%20% Time in school - Kevin Brookhouserhttp://www.iteachithink.com/2012/07/give-your-students-20-time-to-do.htmlhttp://www.iteachithink.com/2012/08/a-letter-to-my-students-and-parents.htmlhttp://www.iteachithink.com/2012/08/20-project-bad-idea-factory.html
Maker FaireBay Area, CA
Caine’s Arcade
http://cainesarcade.com/http://www.imagination.is/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theredproject/2830516037/
Create a fashionable outfit using only newspaper.
Do a fashion photo shootDocument it with photos and video
Produce a “Creativity is...” slide
“It’s not an ‘either/or,’ it’s an ‘and.’ You can be
serious and play.”Tim Brown, founder of IDEO
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lst1984/2283409535/
The Value of PlayCuriosity
Idea StartersOffering ChoiceCombining Ideas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80901381@N04/7530054972
Based on an idea from Mike Anderson, NZ.
No piece of paper can be folded in half more
than 7 times.
How could you find out?
The average person’s left hand does 93% of the typing.
How could you find out?
The short term memory capacity for most people is between 5 and 9 digits.
How could you find out?
The Value of PlayCuriosity
Idea StartersOffering ChoiceCombining Ideas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12836528@N00/2394279602/
A tap drips at a rate of 10 drops per minute into a large cylindrical container. Each drop contains 5 ml of water.
The cylindrical container is 1.5m tall and 1.1m in diameter, with a wall thickness of 50mm.
How long would it take for the water to fill the container?
1.5m
1.1m
Problem idea by Dan Meyer, Image by Chris Betcher
Find an interesting photo (try Flickr’s Last 7 Days Interestingness)
Come up with a question, task or problem that uses this image as a prompt for an activity
Combine the image and the prompt on a Keynote or PowerPoint slide
Send your single slide to xxxxxx(Keynote or PowerPoint)
• Writing prompts for creative writing - http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/• More writing prompts - http://photoprompts.tumblr.com/• And even more - http://visualwritingprompts.wordpress.com/
The Value of PlayCuriosity
Idea StartersOffering ChoiceCombining Ideas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14838182@N00/6518707833/
How Schools see things
How Life sees things
Verbs Nouns
Blogs
Wikis
Keynote
Voicethread
iMovie
Comic Life
Photoshop
Sketchupetc...
Communicate
Write
Persuade
Calculate
Present
Design
Inform
Create
...using...
Teacher’s job Student’s job
Do Nothing
The Value of PlayCuriosity
Idea StartersOffering ChoicesCombining Ideas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detune/215354076/
“Creativity is just connecting things.
When you ask a creative person how they did something, they may feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.
That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”
Steve Jobs
Substitute - components, materials, people
Combine - mix, combine with other assemblies or services, integrate
Adapt - alter, change function, use part of another element
Modify - increase or reduce in scale, change shape, modify attributes (e.g. colour)
Put to another use
Eliminate - remove elements, simplify, reduce to core functionality
Reverse - turn inside out or upside down
http://www.flickr.com/photos/heartlover1717/7239093684/
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCT_02.htm
borrowing is not stealing
Everything is a Remix
http://www.everythingisaremix.info/
“Overprotecting intellectual property is as as harmful as underprotecting it. Creativity is impossible without a rich public domain. Overprotection stifles the very creative forces it is supposed to nurture...
... Nothing today, likely nothing since we tamed fire, is genuinely new: Culture, like science and technology, grows by accretion, each new creator building on the works of those who came before”
Judge Alex KozinskiUS Court of Appeals
all rights reserved
public domain
some rights reserved
Images
•Flickr (CC Search) •FlickrCC•The Commons•The Open Photo Project•Wikimedia Commons•Google (CC Search)•OpenClipArt•PhotoEverywhere•CompFight•PhotoPin
Audio
•CC Mixter•Jamendo•SpinXpress•Wikimedia Commons•MusOpen•OpSound•OLPC Sound Archive•SoundClick•The FreeSound Project
Text Information
•Wikipedia•Wikipedia for Schools•Project Gutenburg•Wikibooks•Wikijunior•Free-Reading•OER Commons•Curriki•Freebase
The Value of PlayCuriosity
Idea StartersOffering ChoiceCombining Ideas
How do we get creativity from our students?
Give then something interesting to work on
Give them the time, tools and skills they need
Get out of their way!
Image: 'newt' http://www.flickr.com/photos/24471966@N04/3102653703
The less restrictions you place on a task, the more creative the response
The more restrictions you place on a task, the less creative the response
Image: 'Vintage block print illustration' http://www.flickr.com/photos/10278395@N08/2310455009
Make it “hard fun”
Be ambitious for them
Image: 'Bravo' http://www.flickr.com/photos/92953327@N00/234931709