Monday, December 8, 2008

Week 7


This week's virtue is Creativity. Creativity is the power of imagination. Creativity is a way to develop your special talents, gifts or abilities. It is seeing something in a new way, finding a different way to solve a problem. Creativity is using your imagination to bring something new into the world. These are just a few ways to describe, "creativity." The sad reality is that many of us growing up and going to school had our creativity, (how do I say it tactfully?) kind of squashed out of us.

Well, at least that was my experience for the most part, except for that one social studies class in Grade eight. The assignment was to do a group project about the Loyalists in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. I don't remember what the other students did, but I remember our project, because I had never had so much fun creating a skit with my three friends. The teacher was so supportive and I felt so affirmed. One of the elements of the skit was using a little comedy. We were acting out Loyalists hiding in the night trying to keep from getting discovered. We used magic candles that relight every time you tried to blow them out, until we dipped them in water. It really added to the suspense and the comedy. We had so much fun. But unfortunately, that was one of the rare moments where I remember I was allowed, no, I was encouraged to use my creativity.

A few weeks ago, we were asked to watch a video by Sir Ken Robinson on Ted.com called, Do Schools Kill Creativity?



Robinson says that creativity in schools should treated as importantly as literacy. I believe he is right! Here at Credenda, we want our eTeachers and eStudents alike to realize their potential not only in math, science, and literacy, but also in their creative expressions of each of these subject areas. We want learning to be fun, interesting, and relevant. I'm not interested in assignments being given to eStudents just for the sake of being given an assignment. It must have a purpose, and there are a variety of ways to achieve that purpose. Not only do I want Credenda to be that place of learning, but that kind of experience; the Credenda experience that embraces creativity. I love the potential to use technology to achieve these goals. Over the past weeks, I have been encouraging you to use blogs as one of those ways to express yourself. You can embed video, images, put links to other sources, and more. Blogging is becoming increasingly recognized as a valuable medium for communicating. Today's employers are looking for workers, who understand technology and the many ways to use it to communicate, and work collaboratively. In many ways, they are looking for creative people. You think about that!

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