Slides from my Extended Learning session at Learning 2.012, Beijing.

2. Do schools
kill creativity?

3. Ask a class of first graders
“Are you creative?”
Ask a class of tenth graders
“Are you creative?”
What have we done
to these children?
Image: 'ijc'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23474554@N00/3561179958

4. !

6. http://www.flickr.com/photos/fwp/148695815/
Quantity?
Quality?

8. Creativity is...
In small groups, finish this sentence.
Write down as many variations as you wish.
We will share them with the group later.

10. We have never needed
creativity as much as we do
right now
Image: 'My Brain on MRI'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48600090482@N01/22584430

11. We need to produce
people who know
how to act when
they’re faced with
situations for which
they were not
specifically
prepared.
Seymour Papert

12. The Value of Play
Curiosity
Idea Starters
Offering Choice
Combining Ideas

13. The Value of Play
Curiosity
Idea Starters
Offering Choice
Combining Ideas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92981392@N00/12944421/

14. Evan Kidd - Psychologist
Recorded at TEDx Sydney 2012
Watch the whole talk at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzCfUvWD0Q4

15. 20%

16. 50%
20% Time in school - Kevin Brookhouser
http://www.iteachithink.com/2012/07/give-your-students-20-time-to-do.html
http://www.iteachithink.com/2012/08/a-letter-to-my-students-and-parents.html
http://www.iteachithink.com/2012/08/20-project-bad-idea-factory.html

17. Maker Faire
Bay Area, CA

18. Caine’s Arcade
http://cainesarcade.com/
http://www.imagination.is/

19. http://www.flickr.com/photos/theredproject/2830516037/
Create a fashionable outfit
using only newspaper.
Do a fashion photo shoot
Document it with photos and video
Produce a “Creativity is...” slide

20. “It’s not an ‘either/or,’
it’s an ‘and.’ You can be
serious and play.”
Tim Brown, founder of IDEO
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lst1984/2283409535/

21. The Value of Play
Curiosity
Idea Starters
Offering Choice
Combining Ideas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80901381@N04/7530054972

24. Based on an idea from Mike Anderson, NZ.

25. No piece of paper can
be folded in half more
than 7 times.
How could you find out?

26. The average person’s left
hand does 93% of the typing.
How could you find out?

27. The short term memory
capacity for most people
is between 5 and 9 digits.
How could you find out?

29. The Value of Play
Curiosity
Idea Starters
Offering Choice
Combining Ideas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12836528@N00/2394279602/

36. A tap drips at a rate of 10 drops
per minute into a large cylindrical
container. Each drop contains 5 ml
of water.
The cylindrical container is 1.5m
tall and 1.1m in diameter, with a
wall thickness of 50mm.
1.1m
How long would it take
for the water to fill the
container?
1.5m
Problem idea by Dan Meyer, Image by Chris Betcher

37. Find an interesting photo
(try Flickr’s Last 7 Days Interestingness)
Come up with a question, task or
problem that uses this image as a prompt
for an activity
Combine the image and the prompt on a
Keynote or PowerPoint slide
Send your single slide to xxxxxx
(Keynote or PowerPoint)
• Writing prompts for creative writing - http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/
• More writing prompts - http://photoprompts.tumblr.com/
• And even more - http://visualwritingprompts.wordpress.com/

38. The Value of Play
Curiosity
Idea Starters
Offering Choice
Combining Ideas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14838182@N00/6518707833/

39. How Schools see things
How Life sees things

43. Verbs Nouns
Write Blogs
Communicate Wikis
Persuade Keynote
Calculate Voicethread
...using...
Present iMovie
Design Comic Life
Inform Photoshop
Create Sketchup
etc...
Teacher’s job Student’s job

44. Do Nothing

45. The Value of Play
Curiosity
Idea Starters
Offering Choices
Combining Ideas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detune/215354076/

49. “Creativity is just connecting things.
When you ask a creative person how
they did something, they may feel a little
guilty because they didn’t really do it, they
just saw something. It seemed obvious to
them after a while.
That’s because they were able to connect
experiences they’ve had and synthesize
new things.”
Steve Jobs

50. http://www.flickr.com/photos/heartlover1717/7239093684/
Substitute - components, materials, people
Combine - mix, combine with other assemblies or
services, integrate
Adapt - alter, change function, use part of another
element
Modify - increase or reduce in scale, change
shape, modify attributes (e.g. colour)
Put to another use
Eliminate - remove elements, simplify, reduce to
core functionality
Reverse - turn inside out or upside down
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCT_02.htm

51. borrowing is not stealing

52. Everything is a Remix
http://www.everythingisaremix.info/

53. “Overprotecting intellectual property is as as
harmful as underprotecting it. Creativity is
impossible without a rich public domain.
Overprotection stifles the very creative forces
it is supposed to nurture...
... Nothing today, likely nothing since we tamed
fire, is genuinely new: Culture, like science and
technology, grows by accretion, each new
creator building on the works of those who
came before”
Judge Alex Kozinski
US Court of Appeals

54. all rights some rights public
reserved reserved domain

55. www.creativecommons.org

56. Images
•Flickr (CC Search)
•FlickrCC
•The Commons
•The Open Photo Project
•Wikimedia Commons
•Google (CC Search)
•OpenClipArt
•PhotoEverywhere
•CompFight
•PhotoPin

57. Audio
•CC Mixter
•Jamendo
•SpinXpress
•Wikimedia Commons
•MusOpen
•OpSound
•OLPC Sound Archive
•SoundClick
•The FreeSound Project

58. Text Information
•Wikipedia
•Wikipedia for Schools
•Project Gutenburg
•Wikibooks
•Wikijunior
•Free-Reading
•OER Commons
•Curriki
•Freebase

59. The Value of Play
Curiosity
Idea Starters
Offering Choice
Combining Ideas

60. How do we get creativity from our students?
Give then something
interesting to work on
Give them the time, tools and
skills they need
Get out of their way!
Image: 'newt'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24471966@N04/3102653703

61. The less restrictions you
place on a task, the more
creative the response
The more restrictions you
place on a task, the less
creative the response
Image: 'Vintage block print illustration'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10278395@N08/2310455009

62. Make it “hard fun”
Be ambitious for them
Image: 'Bravo'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92953327@N00/234931709