Creativity and Education

OK, so this video from TED is not exactly new, but it does tell us something about creativity in education. If you haven't been to the TED site, you must go. It is full of inspiring and thought-provoking videos that challenge the mainstream ideas of many of today's toughest challenges. Sir Ken, does just that.
In this video he says that we are "educating kids out of creativity". Students today want to be engaged in activities that teach. I think every educator needs to listen to Sir Ken and then think of one way they can change their practice this year.
Our students need us to.

Learning for a Purpose

What does this picture have to do with the title?

Wow!! I can't believe I started this post and then got so busy that I totally forgot to finish it.

Look at the above picture. It looks like a wire with a farm in the background, right? Well, it is. It's also something else. There is learning going on here. Self-directed learning at that. I can give anyone a camera and tell them to take pictures. When I get them back some will be good and some will be OK, but probably very few will be great.

However, give them a purpose and you will get results. This is what I did in this case. I worked with a group of students on digital photography with the knowledge that each one of them would be entered in a wonderful photography contest. The River Valley Photography Contest is a great place for students to showcase their work and get recognized.

In this case, it wasn't a case of 'I'll take the best two or three shots'; they knew that each one of them would have an entry in the contest. With that in mind, I gave them the contest "themes" and they were off.

Sure, I got blurry photos, off-theme photos, crazy pictures, funny pictures, but I also got excellent photos and a group of grade 6 and 7 students who were engaged and could tell you a story about each picture.

The photos are now entered in the contest. They were engaged in their learning, and I believe that they will remember this one activity for a long time. So much fun!

Project Based Learning

If you don't know by now, I am a fan of Project Based Learning(PBL). However, it has to be for a real purpose and well linked to the curriculum. Students like well planned and organized PBL assignments. Where is the technology angle? It can be anywhere as long as the project is not about the technology, but includes the technology as an embedded part of the overall outcome. Technology is not going to make the project successful. It is a tool to help students when they are working on their projects. Here is a PBL assignment I have had in my head for a long time. I think its easy, engaging and involves just the right amount of technology for the one computer classroom.

OK, so here it is. Lets say that you are having students writing essays, poetry, short stories, etc. In the regular classroom these writings end up on the teachers desk, get marked, are handed back and then finally end up buried in a locker or in the trash. Now, let's put it all together in a PBL assignment.

In this case, the teacher tells the students that they are going to be writing for a purpose this year/semester. They will all be authors; published authors. This year they will write knowing that the best work will be published in an anthology. This book will be published and made available for sale. The teacher collects the works, maybe working with the students to create a theme, etc.

As the year or semester passes the works are collected. Students know the ending...the best get published. They have a reason to write. A real purpose. Finally the works are collected in a document. The teacher then creates the book on a site such as lulu.com and that's it. A real published book. What student does not want to be an author?

The idea is simple...The technology involved is simple...The results are real...

PBL Rules!