Are you familiar with TED talks? A TED talk is a short (usually below 18-20 minutes) video created from the presentation of the main TED (technology, entertainment, design) conference. I don't know about you, but I would love to attend a TED conference in the future.
Ken Robinson's TED talk on Creativity in the Classroom has certainly caught my attention. It has got me really questioning what I am doing on a daily basis to implement creativity into my pedagogy.
In this short 20-minute clip, Ken Robinson discusses how creativity NEEDS to become part of our mainstreem educational system, worldwide. Ken argues that creativity is just as importance as literacy in our pedagogy today. According to Ken, creativity is defined as "the process of having original ideas that have value". Ken also suggests that "if you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original". I can certainly emphasize with this thought- the fear of failure gets in my way on a daily basis. Ken takes it a step further when he argues that "by the time we get to be adults, we of us have lost that capacity" (to NOT be subdued by "failure").
The burning question: Do schools kill creativity?
I 100% agree with Ken that schools "kill" creativity. I feel that today teachers are far too consumed with state testing, state standards, state mandates, deadlines, and other requirements to be concerned with "creativeness". Additionally, teachers have percentages hung over their heads and often mistake "creativity" as getting "side-tracked" or "off-topic". There aren't as many "teachable moments" in todays classrooms. Would you agree? It is unfortunate because creativity is the very quality that propels higher-level thinking and ingenuity in our students. Without creativity, we are one in the same.
To speak on a personal level, I feel that throughout elementary school and high school the creativity window for me has shrunken drastically. I once wanted to study art but was questioned, "what can you do with an art degree?" It seems as though the arts and humanity were placed on a different hierarchy than the math and reading that I "needed" for college prep. Ken would certainly agree with my personal connection. Ken believes that "our educational system is predicated on the idea of academic ability. Public education around the world is designed to promote university entrance".
Food for thought, from the words of Picasso. "All children are born artiists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up." It is clear that we, as educators, need to re-think the fundamental principles of which we are teaching our children. We need more "artists" in our classrooms, and less "fear of failure".
How can we use digital media to bring creativity alive in our classrooms?
I feel that students can use digital media to reconnect with their creativity in many ways. We can use applications to teach our students how to connect, collaborate, and communicate their ideas. We can introduce social media in our classroom as a way for students to channel their creativity, rather than masking it as a "stigma". Students can become immersed in the world of blogging, create a wiki to track their learning and curiousities, or even develop their own games. Students can create podcasts and/or videos to share their learning and knowledge with students in their classroom and around the world. Students can create and share their learning with Google Docs- taking the collaboration piece to a whole new level. Students can create their own books and become self-published authors. There are so many opportunities in which we can help our students grow back INTO creativity, rather than OUT of it. I think the best way to achieve creativity in our classrooms is to give students CHOICE. I once had a high school biology teacher that allowed us to choose from one of 5-7 activities as our culminating project. It was great to see what other classmates chose. I also feel that when we had a choice, we were more creative in our production capabilites. The project didn't seem as much as a chore, but rather an opportunity to showcase our talents!
Resources:
TED. (2007, Jan 6). Do schools kill creativity? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY
In what ways are YOU bringing creativity back into your classroom?
Ken Robinson's TED talk on Creativity in the Classroom has certainly caught my attention. It has got me really questioning what I am doing on a daily basis to implement creativity into my pedagogy.
In this short 20-minute clip, Ken Robinson discusses how creativity NEEDS to become part of our mainstreem educational system, worldwide. Ken argues that creativity is just as importance as literacy in our pedagogy today. According to Ken, creativity is defined as "the process of having original ideas that have value". Ken also suggests that "if you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original". I can certainly emphasize with this thought- the fear of failure gets in my way on a daily basis. Ken takes it a step further when he argues that "by the time we get to be adults, we of us have lost that capacity" (to NOT be subdued by "failure").
The burning question: Do schools kill creativity?
I 100% agree with Ken that schools "kill" creativity. I feel that today teachers are far too consumed with state testing, state standards, state mandates, deadlines, and other requirements to be concerned with "creativeness". Additionally, teachers have percentages hung over their heads and often mistake "creativity" as getting "side-tracked" or "off-topic". There aren't as many "teachable moments" in todays classrooms. Would you agree? It is unfortunate because creativity is the very quality that propels higher-level thinking and ingenuity in our students. Without creativity, we are one in the same.
To speak on a personal level, I feel that throughout elementary school and high school the creativity window for me has shrunken drastically. I once wanted to study art but was questioned, "what can you do with an art degree?" It seems as though the arts and humanity were placed on a different hierarchy than the math and reading that I "needed" for college prep. Ken would certainly agree with my personal connection. Ken believes that "our educational system is predicated on the idea of academic ability. Public education around the world is designed to promote university entrance".
Food for thought, from the words of Picasso. "All children are born artiists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up." It is clear that we, as educators, need to re-think the fundamental principles of which we are teaching our children. We need more "artists" in our classrooms, and less "fear of failure".
How can we use digital media to bring creativity alive in our classrooms?
I feel that students can use digital media to reconnect with their creativity in many ways. We can use applications to teach our students how to connect, collaborate, and communicate their ideas. We can introduce social media in our classroom as a way for students to channel their creativity, rather than masking it as a "stigma". Students can become immersed in the world of blogging, create a wiki to track their learning and curiousities, or even develop their own games. Students can create podcasts and/or videos to share their learning and knowledge with students in their classroom and around the world. Students can create and share their learning with Google Docs- taking the collaboration piece to a whole new level. Students can create their own books and become self-published authors. There are so many opportunities in which we can help our students grow back INTO creativity, rather than OUT of it. I think the best way to achieve creativity in our classrooms is to give students CHOICE. I once had a high school biology teacher that allowed us to choose from one of 5-7 activities as our culminating project. It was great to see what other classmates chose. I also feel that when we had a choice, we were more creative in our production capabilites. The project didn't seem as much as a chore, but rather an opportunity to showcase our talents!
Resources:
TED. (2007, Jan 6). Do schools kill creativity? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY
In what ways are YOU bringing creativity back into your classroom?