Creativity in Progress

Creator amidst his Creative "Mess"

The drive to create is natural. Creating things can get messy.

At last count there were over 45 instances of original creations in this scattering of legos in the picture to the left. To many, this room is "a mess".

Creativity isn't interested in neat. Creativity isn't interested in being organized. It is focused on bringing into existence something new.  Something original. It is novel.

Being creative and creating things is empowering. Cleaning up is not. Cleaning up a creative "mess" requires a different part of the brain and is the opposite process (but it can bring a certain sense of satisfaction.) Of course, cleaning up is necessary. However,  it can wait.  I'd rather encourage creativity in the moment than limit it by insisting on neat and tidy (and quiet) right now.

What a magical time to be alive- with so many apps and tools at our disposal to Create and Learn. For Kids and Adults . And, of course, there's This.

Admittedly, the number of tools and apps to engage creativity, assist and empower students to learn better has become overwhelming.  How to encourage and implement creativity and scale technology integration for learning in classrooms, consistently, remains a challenge. The current climate in Education doesn't make it easy but it is high time for all schools and districts to identify and promote their technology 'pioneers' to help sort through the 'mess' of options and assist new, willing technology integrators one classroom at a time so that students can begin to enjoy school as a place where they can follow their interests, engage in what matters and make sense of the world by creating their own artifacts of learning.  Our young creators are depending on it.

Connecting With Students

Students, especially our youngest ones, enter the domain of school with open hearts (and imaginations). Too often, we meet them with fixed minds and ignore the gift of these open hearts and minds that they bring into school and into our classrooms. Ultimately, they learn that occupying the mind with things to remember is more important than either of these. Eventually they lose touch with their true nature, disconnect and fall into the 'game' of 'learning'.

If there is to be true Educational 'Reform' at all, it must begin with a paradigm shift of seismic proportions: one that reorients our compass from student's minds to their hearts-to WHO they are not what they THINK. This necessitates an internal shift within us as well. We need to open ourselves up  as well so we meet our students halfway.  Students will always remember how we made them feel, not necessarily what we made them think.

When students trust a teacher they are more apt to listen and learn from them.  Trust is not built by teaching facts.

“Relational trust is built on movements of the human heart such as empathy, commitment, compassion, patience, and the capacity to forgive.” ― Parker J. Palmer, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life

Changing Minds As Ed. Reform

One of the things I most admire about High School Principal /Twitterer Eric Sheninger is that he wasn't always as open or as tech savvy as we now know him to be. He is proof positive that Educators/Administrators can, indeed, change. Once upon a time, he supported blocking sites that could be useful in the classroom. Until he was educated about the benefits that could be had there.

It almost seems crazy. He's a very regular Twitterer and Blogger and has a healthy Social Media presence. Every one of his tweets and blog posts have value (either philosophical or practical). He appears to be the icon of 21st Century Ed. Tech Leadership? Yet only 3 years ago he wasn't-and he admits this.

That is the fact that matters. He admits that he changed. He admits that he once held a worldview that potentially limited resources that could better student's education and lives. But he listened. He learned. He changed. And the best part is that now he's right out front singing the praises of instructional technology and tools that can assist, ignite and enhance the learning process.

His story, because it is real, is that one that we can tell our local administrators. His story can change minds one at a time. When minds get changed, the web opens up and our schools can enter the 21st Century.

The Computer Won't Let Me...

• login
• use the software
• create an account"

I hear this from adults as well as kids. There are almost metaphysical realms at work when this attitude is in full gear. It seems that if there is an expectation of failure, it WILL fail. This attitude gets projected at technology. ALOT.

I recently assisted our school in developing a paperless calendar system using
a simple Google-based online, embeddable calendar. Events could be submitted online using a Google Docs Form. The Administrative Assistant and Principal can review the request and approve it within a few hours in most cases. The event will go 'live' on the calendar usually within 24 hours with no paper involved and with strict oversight of any possible conflicts.

Sounds great. Sounds simple. And it is!
BUT.
There are two factors that immediately made this simplicity problematic:

1-It involved technology
2-It required CHANGE

These two seem to be dreaded by many in the Education Profession. In our case, there was much anxious buzz about the new system mostly because people had to give up the 'tangibility' that the paper calendar seemed to represent. And they would try to do
strange things like attempt to migrate the new online calendar to Microsoft Office as if THAT was where a calendar "belongs". It is very frustrating at first to be confronted with this resistance. Very! But that's only the first reaction. Upon reflection, one realizes
(as Michael Fullan reminds us) that change comes slow (in schools especially) and resistance is a natural part of ANY change.

Also-Ours is a tactile and visual culture: 'If I can't see it and touch it, it doesn't exist". Unless your a 'techie'. Then you know the great value of going paperless, subscribing to feeds, using apps, embeddable files, blogs, etc...So until one is and understands that the
paradigm has changed (everything, everywhere all the time; digitally), it will be slow going.

I began blogging about Web 2.0 and using tech in education 3 years ago using videos such as Are you Paying Attention and Shift Happens as support for my claims. If I were to predict that most Education Professionals still haven't caught on in 2010, I would say your'e crazy.

But here we are. Those of us tweeting and blogging mostly get reinforcement from each other..We speak to the choir. We are NOT the majority, however.

So, I believe in both Scott AND Darren's arguments.

Tech has great value in transforming teaching and learning and SHOULD be adopted but
Education Professionals need a great deal of empathy, encouragement and patience to get moving in a direction of adopting tech.

Any adoption of technology should only be done to support learning and teaching goals that are already established to empower students by allowing more or better avenues for creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, assessment and differentiation- to reflect our new and ever-changing 21st Century World.

Photo credit

The Slow Nature of Change in Schools

On a recent field trip, neither my students nor I was at threat of being eaten alive by a t-rex.

Why, despite ruling Earth for nearly 80 million years (even longer than Wall Street barons), are Cretaceous period animals not regularly chowing on our gizzards? Things change.

Scientists have suspected this for some time. In fact, a growing body of geologic evidence seems to support the theory that things today are not the same as they were 200 million years ago. (Many even suspect tomorrow will be different than today.)

Surprisingly, this idea of “change as constant” is not yet an accepted norm. (Though it comes as no surprise to anyone whose visited any number of schools in recent years.)

by Jason Flom, read the rest at: Shift Happens. (Even in Schools?) | Ecology of Education