Chapters 3 & 9

Lets talk about creativity !  Back when I was a kid, my favorite part of school and/or school projects was being able to be creative.  What color glitter could I use on my poster board (pink, duh), what font should I pick for my sub-topics (Comic Sans, OBVIOUSLY.)  It was all about showman ship and how good of a physical presentation you could create.  When PowerPoint was the "in" thing for presentations, it was all about the colors of your slides, the sound effects added, the introduction the words had (did they pop up, slide in, drop down...)  The goal was to effectively capture your class' attention without looking like such a teachers pet.  

This week both of our chapters talked about creativity in technology.  While chapter three briefly touched upon the subject, chapter nine was all about creativity.  This creativity for teachers stuff goes way beyond our font a color choices!  Creativity not only applies to the activity we choose but also the way in which we present it to our students.  Our authors define creativity as "thinking and acting in ways that generate alternative approaches to people, presentations and problems. 

Something that stuck out to me in the readings was in chapter three where they talk about how children and adolescents display their creativity personal ways within family, school and after-school environments.  So while we as teachers may be focused on their creativity in an educational form, they're all creative outside of our classrooms.  The way in which they decorate their room, their personal style (how they dress), what they chose to do with their free time.  So when we're asking our students to be creative, it doesn't necessarily have to be using a method or way that is new to the world, but new to the student themselves.

My questions to you are:

1. Do you believe all the projects/presentations should be presented in a technological manner (i.e. PowerPoint, YouTube, IMovie etc.)

2. When doing projects that are technological, are you worried that your students will focus more on the creativity than the quality of the content they are presenting?