Resources

Update (by Avril Loveless)

This updates the original Literature Review in Creativity, New Technologies and Learning, published in 2002 - see below - and should be read in conjunction with that report.

The update is available to download in pdf format - see box below.

Original review (September 2002)

Avril M Loveless, School of Education, University of Brighton

The full version of this review is available to download in pdf format - see box below. On this page you'll find the executive summary.

Executive summary

In recent years people in many sectors of society have expressed disquiet about lack of creativity in the curriculum. From Telford to Tokyo artists, writers, performers, teachers, psychologists, philosophers and representatives of the cultural and commercial industries have warned against the consequences of constraining children and young people’s creative potential.

What then, might we mean by ‘creativity’? Creativity can be regarded as not only a quality found in exceptional individuals, but also as an essential life skill through which people can develop their potential to use their imagination to express themselves, and make original and valued choices in their lives. Societies of the 21st century require active participation in the fastchanging ‘Knowledge Age’ in which there is an interaction between people, communities, creative processes, knowledge domains and wider social contexts.

What is the role of digital technologies in these processes? Digital information and communications technologies (ICT) can be seen as a set of tools which can be chosen as and when they are appropriate in the creative process. In addition, it can be argued that the characteristics of ICT can also make a distinctive contribution to those processes, providing new tools, media and environments for learning to be creative and learning through being creative. Learners and teachers can use ICT to support imaginative expression, autonomy and collaboration, fashioning and making, pursuing purpose, being original and judging value. ICT can offer opportunities to be creative in authentic contexts in ways which have not been as accessible or immediate without new technologies. Such accessibility and flexibility, however, present challenges to teachers and schools in confronting present models of resources, timetables, curriculum and assessment requirements, which can inhibit learners’ engagement with creative processes and lead to a superficial or fragmented focus on products. Creativity can be promoted and extended with the use of new technologies where there is understanding of, and opportunities for, the variety of creative processes in which learners can engage. Key issues to be discussed by those interested in creativity in education include the understandings of ‘creativity’; the features of ICT which enable learners to be creative; the creative activities which are already going on and the contexts in which learners can realise their creative potential.

What is the role of creativity in education?

The British Government responded to the debates about creative and cultural education to meet the economic, technological and social challenges of the 21st century by initiating a range of projects to enhance learners’ creative experiences. The potential of digital technologies to enable new forms of engagement, access and educational achievement is recognised in the development of proposals such as ‘Culture Online’ - a service offering interactive access to national arts and cultural resources through the internet and digital television. Providing access to culture through the internet does not, however, make the experience creative in itself, and our perceptions of what we might mean by ‘creativity’ need to be explored.

Understandings of the nature of creativity have changed in scope and depth over the last hundred years. Many have focused on the characteristics of exceptional individuals in our culture, from van Eyk to Van Gogh, Darwin to Dawkins, Telemann to Thelonius Monk. More recently there has been an acknowledgement of the creative potential of all individuals in different knowledge domains, or subjects not confined to traditional definitions of the ‘arts’ or ‘sciences’. An ethos which encourages creativity in different communities and environments also has an influence on individuals and groups. Creativity can now be recognised and valued at the level of individuals, peergroups or the wider society and considered as an essential element in participating in and contributing to the life and culture of society. There have been many attempts to define ‘creativity’ and useful theoretical frameworks have been formulated which describe the interaction between qualities in people and communities, creative processes, subject areas and social contexts. The National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE) draws upon a range of conceptualisations of creativity and presents a definition which is a useful framework for educators - ‘imaginative activity fashioned so as to produce outcomes that are both original and of value’. This definition is helpful in that it expresses five characteristics of creativity: using imagination; a fashioning process; pursuing purpose; being original and judging value. Creativity in education can encompass learning to be creative in order to produce work that has originality and value to individuals, peers and society, as well as learning to be creative in order to support ‘possibility thinking’ in making choices in everyday life.

What are the potential roles of digital technologies in supporting creativity?

The use of the term ICT is inadequate to describe the variety of technologies, settings and interventions through which new technologies have an impact on people’s lives. Digital technologies exhibit features of provisionality, interactivity, capacity, range, speed and automatic functions which enable users to do things that could not be done as effectively, or at all, using other tools. People who are ‘ICT capable’ are certainly able to use a variety of skills and techniques with particular technologies. More importantly, they are also able to understand the reasons why digital technologies might be appropriate for particular tasks and situations, make informed choices in their use, evaluate their impact and be open to new developments and possibilities. It is the interaction between the distinctive features of ICT and the characteristics of creativity that opens up new perspectives on the development of creativity in education.

How might we teach for creativity with digital technologies?

Teaching for creativity with digital technologies presents challenges in two areas – the use of ICT to support creativity in traditional settings such as schools, and the development of ICT resources to support innovation in new learning environments for creative activity and collaboration. Within the more familiar settings of schools and classrooms, models of access to ICT resources should reflect characteristics of creative environments and teaching strategies which include:

• awareness of the ways in which creativity is related to knowledge across the curriculum
• opportunities for exploration and play with materials, information and ideas;
• opportunities to take risks and make mistakes in a non-threatening atmosphere
• opportunities for reflection, resourcefulness and resilience
• flexibility in time and space for the different stages of creative activity
• sensitivity to the values of education which underpin individual and local interest, commitment, potential and quality of life
• teaching strategies which acknowledge ‘teaching for creativity’ as well as ‘teaching creatively’.

The designs of new communications technologies for creative interactions are presenting challenges to expectations of traditional classroom settings in terms of spaces, time, portability, connectivity and flexibility for individuals and communities. Learners can engage in a range of activities, from using interactive whiteboards and wireless portable computers, to working together in virtual spaces to exchange and build ideas and artefacts.

How are people using digital technologies creatively?

Many learners and teachers have established a wide range of activities to support approaches to creativity and exploit the features of digital technologies in processes such as:

• developing ideas: supporting imaginative conjecture, exploration and representation of ideas
• making connections: supporting, challenging, informing and developing ideas by making connections with information, people, projects and resources
• creating and making: engaging in making meanings though fashioning processes of capture, manipulation and transformation of media
• collaboration: working with others in immediate and dynamic ways to collaborate on outcomes and construct shared knowledge
• communication and evaluation: publishing and communicating outcomes for evaluation and critique from a range of audiences.

These activities are not always discrete or sequential and there can be synchronicity in their expression and overlap of applications for different purposes. Examples of such activities range from using simulations and adventure games to explore the question ‘what would happen if…?’, to publishing hypertext stories or constructing avatars to meet and interact in three-dimensional, virtual worlds. This wealth of activity illustrates how children and young people are able to use ICT to demonstrate creative characteristics in the interaction between people and processes in subject areas which are authentic, relevant and challenging.

How can we assess creativity, learning and digital technologies?

Attempts to produce methods for the assessment of creativity have not been straightforward, and few of the many instruments and tests devised have been able to measure the concept adequately. There are tensions between assessment of creative activities for different reasons. Do we want measures of creativity for ‘high stake standards’, such as statutory tests and national examinations? Do we want to be able to assess creativity in order to give feedback to individuals on their achievements and ways forward for progression? Do we want to have means to recognise and celebrate meaningful and original personal expression? Assessment of pupils’ ICT capability is no less problematic. It is easier to identify whether pupils can or can’t use particular skills and techniques than to find correlations between the use of these techniques and their attainment in other subjects. It is not easy to use traditional measures and tests to identify the indirect effects of the use of ICT on motivation, attitude, problem-solving capability, critical thinking and information handling abilities. Some teachers and researchers have developed positive approaches to the complexity of assessment by using dimensions along a range of criteria for the use of technologies to support creative processes. Many have recognised that traditions and expertise in assessment in both art and media education can inform approaches to peer review, evaluation and formative assessment, recognising the unique contributions of new technologies.

What are the implications for practice, curriculum and design?

Thinking about the potential of digital technologies to promote teaching and learning for creativity raises a number of issues for teachers’ work in classrooms and informal sessions, for teacher education and for the types of questions investigated in research. It is important to realise that there are a number of frameworks for describing and supporting our shared understanding of creativity, and recognise that the use of digital technologies can make a unique contribution to creative processes. It will be challenging to approach the planning and management of creative learning environments and develop confidence in appropriate teaching strategies. The design of strategies for assessment of pupils’ creativity with ICT will be complex, and will need to recognise the ways in which our understanding of the interaction between creativity and digital technologies is emerging from practice and reflection. We can therefore learn much from careful case studies of each other’s experiences and discussion of a range of imaginative research methodologies for further investigation. Lastly we need to continue in our attempts to find ways in which we can describe, explain and analyse our creative practices with ICT, in order to contribute to theoretical frameworks which are useful to educators in a variety of contexts.

What are some of the barriers?

The review has indicated that there are key factors which underpin creative processes and have an impact on the success of teaching for creativity, and that digital technologies can play a distinctive role in both of these aspects of creativity and learning. There are, however, barriers to the development of creativity in traditional educational settings, in that the creative ethos of schools and classrooms and the approaches to the uses of ICT will need to be addressed. Neither are insurmountable, but each needs to be recognised as a constraint upon learners realising the potential of the creative use of digital technologies.

It is said that fear and vanity are often the two emotions which prevent us from realising our potential in many areas of life, and addressing them takes confidence, trust and courage in individuals and within communities. New approaches to flexibility and exploration in ways of working, teaching strategies, curriculum, assessment and management of time and resources in schools could be tried, but this will require the encouragement of an ethos of creative challenge and celebration of imagination and ‘possibility thinking’ for teachers, learners and designers.

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