21 st Century Educational Technology and Learning | K12 educational transformation through technology. Tech Tools to Support Creativity in the Classroom. Myths of creativity. Nothing focuses the mind like a hanging. Samuel Johnson ... as does giving a public presentation. Having had a long time interest in creativity as a motivating factor in good school projects, I decided in a weak moment that creativity might deserve a short presentation all of its own.
So I wrote up a description and the librarians of the British Columbia Teacher-Librarian Association actually asked me to give the talk at their conference last week. So I needed to focus the mind.. Here was the outline: Why is it imperative we take developing creativity seriously? Concerns Concern 1: Creativity isn't always about art. Johnson’s Multiple Creative Abilities Writing/Presenting/StorytellingNumeric problem-solvingGraphic artistic (drawing, painting, sculpting, photography, designing)Athletic/movement (Sports, dance)Musically artisticHumorTeam-buildingProblem-solvingInventingLeadingOrganizingMotivating/inspiring Concern 2: Creativity must be accompanied by craft and discipline.
The Three New Pillars of 21st Century Learning. The textbook, The lecturer and the classroom are three pillars of modern-day schooling that date back hundreds of years. Each was invented to solve a problem. The textbook was invented because information was scarce, the lecturer because teachers were few and the classroom because learning was local. These enduring icons persist into the Internet age, shaping our view of learning and driving the popularity of their digital grandchildren, things like iPad “textbooks” and the Kahn Academy “lectures.” There’s just one catch – these problems don’t exist anymore. In the 21st Century, the Internet has ushered in an online learning environment where information is abundant, teachers are plentiful and learning is global.
To put it simply – we need new pillars for learning. Pillar #1: “I’m only one of my students’ teachers, but I’m the most important because I teach them to connect to all the others.” Pillar #2: “My students should learn from me how to learn without me.” AndDESIGN.
Developing a Keynote: Why Literacy Matters. It seems like a long, long time ago that I was invited by my friend Ben Davis to give a keynote address to the Red Mountain Writing Projec t’s 21st Century Literacies Conference. And yet, here it is. Tomorrow, I will be presenting my thoughts and stories on what it means to be teaching in a world dominated by shifts to the Common Core, and technology as tools for writing, and more. (Today, I travel). I’m excited about the opportunity to visit Birmingham, Alabama, and of course, a tad bit nervous about the responsible of giving one of the keynote addresses (the other is by writer Sharon Draper ). I hope what I have to say resonated with the crowd, and I hope I am not boring.
I named my talk “Literacy Matters” because it seems to me that now, more than ever, writing and literacy is at the heart of all that our students are doing — in school and out of school. That’s part of my intention, anyway. Here is a handout that I developed to accompany my talk. Peace (in the keynote), Kevin.