Make, Learn, Succeed: Building a Culture of Creativity in Your School - Softcover

Mark Gura has been an educator for more than three decades. He works with Touro College, Fordham University, and other organizations to promote the use of technology to provide highly motivating, relevant activities for students. Gura's books include Visual Arts Units for All Levels and Getting Started with LEGO Robotics.

Chapter 7: Student Creativity and Technology

Moving into a teaching practice that embraces the development of student creativity as a focus is a goal that has likely been worthy and relevant for decades.With the advent of near ubiquitous, user friendly digital technologies that can support all manner of intellectual effort, this goal is both a necessity and something that is more achievable than ever before. With technology comes the element of continually accelerating change, a condition for which preparing students implies developing their ability to create solutions and responses to problems, needs, and situations that arise continually. Further, the same technologies that have contributed to this newly heightened learning need are the tools and resources with which effective responses can be created.
 
This chapter presents some key understandings about how these things may be addressed in the classroom. It examines the specific ways that technology can be applied to student creative work and how technology functions within the context of the types of activities closely associated with such activities and projects. Further, the chapter discusses connections between technology and the sorts of activities found more and more in the evolving intellectual workplace, an environment in which deep thinking, research, and the production and sharing of creative products are becoming essential.

In the article titled “How Can Technology Enhance Student Creativity?” author Saomya Saxena states emphatically:

 
Neuroscience research has proved the fact that all children are born with innate creative powers and as they grow up some of them keep their creativity active while others unconsciously keep it dormant. Hence, all of us from being a child have the potential for great, revolutionary creativity and all we need is to realize this potential. (Saxena, 2013)

In another article, this one appearing in Forbes magazine, titled “The 10 Skills Employers Most Want In 20-Something Employees,” Susan Adams reported that “the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), a Bethlehem, Pa. nonprofit group that links college career placement offices with employers, ran a survey from early August to mid-September where it asked hiring managers what skills they prioritize when they hire college grads … employers seek basic teamwork, problem-solving, and the ability to plan and prioritize” (Adams, 2013).
 
Here are the 10 skills employers say they seek, in order of importance:

 
Most of these skills either relate directly to the development of student creativity— including problem solving and innovation—or they strongly relate to skills involved in the act of creation and work on creative projects (Adams, 2013).
 
Another article, this one from the IBM website, titled “IBM 2010 Global CEO Study: Creativity Selected as Most Crucial Factor for Future Success,” states:
 
According to a major new IBM survey of more than 1,500 Chief Executive Officers from 60 countries and 33 industries worldwide, chief executives believe that—more than rigor,

management discipline, integrity or even vision—successfully navigating an increasing complex world will require creativity. (IBM, 2010)
 
An online search will reveal many similar findings reported in a never-ending stream of such articles. At the very least, these often-heard assertions represent something that today’s educators should ponder as they continue on their planning and preparation for the educational experience they provide their students. The message is clear, though, and now that we have determined that the development of student creativity is a crucial next step in the evolution of the instructional program provided by our schools, the specifics of how to address this need will have to be carefully considered.
 
As I mentioned, I began my career as a public school visual art teacher. After many years of involvement with that subject and a strong interest in the integration of visual art across the curriculum, I gradually became more and more involved in the field of instructional technology. This has afforded me a focused understanding of how the area of student creativity and the area of technology support teaching and learning intersect.
 
Many teachers never really consider the dynamics of teaching art, and they often assume that it is “easy to teach” because it is “fun.” It has been my experience that such opinions are based on unfounded, untested assumptions, assumptions that are incorrect. It is not true that all students necessarily love to make art. Many sim- ply are not interested in art activities, although they may find a little uncommit-  ted dabbling to be amusing. Learning to make art, to focus on craft, message, and meaning is a serious undertaking that requires focus, effort, and the ability to press through frustration and difficulty. Simply understanding the works of great artists, alone, can take a good deal of head scratching and brain stretching. Creating origi- nal works can be infinitely more difficult. It may superficially appear that “playing” with poster paint is just that, play. But the truth is a skillful teacher must coax and coach students through the complex processes involved in making meaningful, communicative, expressive works of art.
 
In the context of an arts course, for instance, when working with students who have been assigned an appropriate and worthwhile learning challenge, one can easily observe students who experience frustration. They may find that when they are expected to deal with producing a response or attempting a solution to an open ended challenge, one for which there is no clear right answer, but one for which a unique, personal response, one that will be measured against defined criteria, is frustrating. Effective learning challenges, by the way, are very often those intended to push the envelope of student understanding and ability. In other words they are designed to provoke a student response that requires a bit of a stretch, intellectually and otherwise.

 
Further, one easily observes significant frustration with the craft portion of the challenge, the need to draw or sculpt an acceptable visual representation of something, for instance, or perhaps to write a clear and insightful description of some- thing. The irony is that in order to respond to the assigned challenge, the student must have at hand a sufficient level of competency of the craft to be employed in creating the required product or performance. It is common for students to give  up before they even begin to try if they sense that the undeveloped level of their skills will result in embarrassing failure. The effect of this is multiplied and com- plicated when students realize that after working on their product or performance for a considerable period of time, they are disappointed with their own work. After the expenditure of much time and effort, they might be facing certain failure even if they apply more time and effort to the project. And yet more time and energy must be expended...