A8KohHoehlMeyerMcCabe

A8KohHoehlMeyerMcCabe

To-Do

please discuss / address the following issues: claim: "Few of today's classroom focus on helping students develop as creative thinkers"

1. Do you agree / disagree with this statement of the article?
2. From your personal experience: which are the three most prominent events / activities in your life as a students (in school, in the university) which have helped you to become a more creative thinker?
   1. Analyze these three events by elaborating your description with the framework defined by the creative thinking spiral.
   2. For each of the processes did you have and use tools to support your activity?
3. Discuss whether the processes of the creative thinking spiral are or will influence your research in your course project and in which way.

1. Do you agree with the statement?

Some what agree and some what disagree. If the classroom means college classroom, then I disagree because we are learning how to suggest or provide innovative or at least better solutions for modern technology/society through the class in college. However, it seems that he meant k-12 classroom as young children are his examples. Even though it means k-12 classroom, I cannot totally agree with above statement. It is true that the modern classroom is not that much different from the classroom one or two decades ago. Curriculum are not much different, teaching methodologies are a bit improved, and new modern technologies in classroom is just supporting old classroom teaching strategies.

If there is any significant difference between them, it would be extra activities. Through the states there are many (at least some) after school classes to teach and increase students' creativity with Lego Mindstorm, Squeak, Alice 3D, AgentSheets, and etc. Usually, these classes are supported by the collaboration with local universities. Also, there are some teachers to utilize these kinds of software for their class to increase students' curiosity and creativity. Unfortunately, I have to admit those approaches are not majority ones in today's school.So Mitchel is right about new technologies in schools today do not support 'creative thinking class'.

However, it is not true most of classroom are stuck in old ways of learning and teaching. Teachers, educators, and researchers are trying to evolve the old ways in classroom. Today's classrooms are in transition from teaching solutions for specific problem to teaching how to make and give a solution for open problems.

2. Analyze the three most prominent events / activities in your life as a students (in school, in the university) which have helped you to become a more creative thinker

One event that led to becoming a stronger creative thinkers was a university writing course focused on science and technology. Instead of teaching the course in a "traditional" manner (where the teacher chose a topic, all the students wrote about it, turned in a final paper, and repeated for another topic), the professor chose to focus on fewer total assignments with more peer-reviewed iterations. One project was to review and analyze an editorial comic that each student chose. This was remarkable for several reasons. First, the students were encouraged to pick a topic they felt personally relevant and could identify with. Second, each step of the process was instructor-reviewed and peer-reviewed. Third, very few guidelines (like page length or content requirements) were made. The iterative approach made the class mimic much of the creative thinking spiral with each class session and the time between being one effective loop of the spiral. Each step of the process was performed by each student with comments and feedback provided by other students and the instructor at each class meeting. This occurred when topics were being investigated (imagine), when topics were chosen, when outlines were made (create), when drafts were made (play), and on the final paper. As such, students had to not only appease the instructor, but the other students as well and over a dozen opinions were voiced at each step rather than just one (share, reflect). Thus, each student had to convince a group of readers with their written arguments instead of convincing an individual. This led to major changes in rhetoric and topics and ultimately made for much higher quality papers. Unfortunately, very few tools were used in this process. Initially, search engines, online newspapers, and a few websites were used to find comics to analyze, but beyond that point, very little technology was used for purposes other than to type up and make copies of the writing. This, however, predates many online and easily accessible collaborative tools. It would be interesting to reevaluate the course with the aid of online collaborative and cooperative environments.

2. I took a basic music theory course at CU that jump-started my creative side. Our class projects were to create a song in any format that uses some of the music techniques that were taught in the class up to that point. These assignments motivated us to be creative, as there is no correct answer to the assignment, only correct components that aid the creation of a final product. I found myself constantly tweeking and improving my song to no end. The song could never be finalized in my mind, but continuously improved upon. The creative thinking spiral applies to this situation. The students use their creative side to think of (imagine) a song idea. The song could be structured based around a song that the student enjoys and is inspired by. Next, the students design (create) a song using basic constructs learned in the class. Throughout the composition process, the song is played back so the composer can evaluate his/her progress and decide what to add to the piece. The students then show (share) their finished products to the class. The students can be inspired (reflect) by the work of their fellow classmates and may use various ideas or techniques in their next project (imagine again). The basic tools needed to create a song were given to us through the course. We used these tools in our own way, and in result created very diverse compositions.

3. One of the activities that I participated in during elementary school that I feel really reinforced the idea of thinking creatively for me was a school sponsored event called Invent America. Invent America was an after school program that started by having all participating students engage in competitive problem solving activities: the egg drop, building the tallest tower out of only paper, etc. The next phase of the program required that we all individually come up with ideas for new inventions, either to solve an existing problem in our lives or merely for fun (imagine). At the time, my brother had a bad habit of spilling his water cup while trying to get a drink almost every night. My brother and I worked to design a solution to this problem, destroying several water bottles in the process (create). We then proceeded to test our new designs every few nights (play). And finally after settling on a final idea, essentially a crude camelback like structure, we submitted our work to the Invent America contest for review (share). Participating in the actual judging of our idea and being able to review others projects aided in the continued reflection and imagination phases. If you can stop someone from spilling water, can you prevent an even more tragic and sticky event: the ice cream cone drip.....

3. Discuss whether the processes of the creative thinking spiral are or will influence your research in your course project and in which way.

The steps of the creative thinking spiral are reflected in the course project in two distinct ways. First, in the practical aspects of group coordination. Second, in the focus and analysis of the subject matter. With regards to the former, our group has naturally followed the creative thinking spiral in how it meets and discusses our progress. As each group member makes progress, he or she shares the new findings and headway with the group over email and at weekly meetings. This has led to many group discussions and new ideas as group members reflect upon new events. After each meeting, individuals then repeat this process and bring new findings back each week. Interestingly, we have found that the share and reflect processes usually co-occur in groups while the imagine, create, and play processes are often individual.

With regards to the research subject matter, we have found that the creativity spiral is well-reflected in what we are studying and how we notice online communities contributing to shared content. For instance, with online story-telling, users all contribute small portions of text to create a larger story. In this environment, however, the create, play, and share processes are all effectively collapsed into one action. As users contribute new text, it is automatically and immediately shared; there is no distinct process that needs to occur. The game development environment more closely matches the spiral. In this domain, users imagine, create, and play games individually, but explicitly share the code using the website. Once others have seen it, their comments can be reflected upon and the game can be iterated. In both cases, however, we have noticed that the steps for online collaboration generally mimic the steps of the creative thinking spiral.