Forum presenters: from left to right: Lee Bryant – Headshift, Stephen Uden – Microsoft, Tim Tarrant – TDA, Keri Facer – Futurelab, Pippa Hullock – Microsoft, Steven Audis – Microsoft and David Barlex - Brunel University/Nuffield Foundation
This is a report on the forum which focused on the use of ICT as a resource for creativity in education.
The TDA and Microsoft's 'Partners in Learning' programme are collaborating on a three-year UK initiative focused on a programme of activities to help teachers, trainee teachers and the wider school workforce become confident in the use of ICT right across the curriculum and able to realise its full potential for teaching and learning.
One aspect of the partnership includes supporting the professional development needs of teachers. Part of this was met by the Creativity Futures Forum, hosted by Microsoft in partnership with the TDA on 27th September 2006.
The event was intended " to present current thinking around the use of technology to support creativity. Attendees gained an insight into a variety of technologies which support an innovative and fresh approach to teaching and learning. Speakers examined how the future of classroom practice may look when supported by technology."
The speakers provided summaries of of their presentations:
The Partners in Learning Projects
Tim Tarrant: TDA
Teachers, Educational Change, Creativity and Technology
Keri Facer, Research Director, Futurelab
"With new ‘personalisation’ agendas, ‘building schools for the future’ programmes and renewed curriculum debates, teachers are increasingly being asked to act as agents of education change. This presentation, based on Futurelab’s Research and Development, asks how best we can support teachers to act as creative agents for change in education and what role digital technologies can play in that process."
Technology - Necessary but Not Sufficient: Creativity in the Design & Technology Classroom
Dr David Barlex, Senior Lecturer in Education, School of Sport and Education, Brunel University, Director Nuffield Design & Technology
"In this presentation David will draw together three important recent developments
- The findings of a joint Nuffield Curriculum centre – QCA investigation into creativity in art & design and design & technology.
- A toolkit for monitoring the design decisions made by pupils from the Electronics in Schools Initiative
- The creativity exhibited by pupils when they design but do not make what they have designed in the Young Foresight approach to design & technology
He will then discuss these developments in the light of the work of Vera John-Steiner, Professor of Linguistics and Education, University of New Mexico, Alberquerque, an acknowledge expert in the field of collaborative creativity and Newli Gershenfiedl, Director of The Centre for Bits and Atoms, MIT and advocate of ‘personal fabrication’.
Finally he will describe a range of scenarios for the future of creativity in the design & Technology classroom."
Back to the future... How simpler, social computing can support creativity in education Lee Bryant, Director, Headshift Ltd; Trustee of Involve; Trustee of the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation
"This presentation will provide an overview of the emerging social software movement, illustrating how a combination of tools, the behaviours they support and the wider ecosystem of online services and data might be deployed within schools to foster creativity and engagement in IT-supported learning. Lee will place these developments within a wider sea change that is occurring within IT, as we move beyond the limitations of primitive desktop software and locked down networks to a web – native world of sharing, collaboration and remixing that is closer to young peoples’ experiences and the internet outside the school environment.
Lee will provide some examples of the easy ways to use social tools to unlock creativity in IT-supported learning and offer some tips for exploiting these new techniques aimed at teachers and other staff who may be new to this area."
The slides from the presenters on the day are attached.