B-musing

I’ve just been viewing Sir Ken Robinson’s TED presentation on Creativity, for the umpteenth time. It’s really thought-provoking as well as humorous and entertaining; but I’m not too sure he’s right on the money so far as whether “schools kill creativity” is concerned. Yes I agree that that is where it happens, but the cause is I think rather more complex -it happens at times in spite of the best efforts of some very good teachers.

I’ve been watching a few of our younger children recently as they produce visual artworks. From where I stand, it seems as if they are totally absorbed in the process, and are enjoying it for what it is; the finished product is almost an afterthought. They are working very much in the moment. It’s the same in movement, dance. They’re unselfconscious.

As they get a bit older however, children start to become critical of their own work. We teach them to do this -it is part of learning to study a piece and look for ways of “improving” it -more colour here, a stronger line there, framing a subject more clearly. But what if in the final analysis a child is unsatisfied with their work? This isn’t necessarily because the piece is not a good one -I’ve listened to teachers praising children for what is some really clever work, but the child doesn’t see it that way -to them it is not what they intended in the first place, so it’s not right.

Again, with all the will in the world, no teacher can make an artist out of someone who just isn’t one. I’m like that -I know what I want my work to look like, but know that it just isn’t going to turn out that way. So art -drawing, painting, sculpture- is an exercise in frustration. So I don’t bother -I go and do something I can do and enjoy. That’s not my teachers’ fault -they did their best, I just didn’t have what it took.

Singing is the same -I can hear much more accurately than I can sing, so I hear when I’m not quite on the right note -which is usually. Where’s the enjoyment in that?

As children get older -say, into the 10-12 age-group- they also become very aware of what their peers think of them, and how their peers respond to what they can or can’t do. Often they will model their behaviour and efforts on what they believe their friends expect of them. It can take a lot of external support and internal drive to go against that and pursue their own goals. Why do so few boys (in NZ at least) become dancers?

There is little doubt at it is at school that many children lose the enthusiasm for art -be it visual art, drama, dance, whatever. Not because schools destroy it -but because as they grow older children discover what they are good at and what gives them real pleasure in doing. They become more discerning regarding the quality of their own performance. They come to understand whether or not they have a talent for something. They discover whether or not they have the drive to follow the path their innate creativity is leading them on.

The best of teachers and schools will be set up to recognise and foster talent and drive when they see it. They will support and nurture, give it time to grow, encourage and guide. Often they will succeed in taking children on to harness their talents; at times, with the best will in the world, they will fail. Does that mean they have “killed” creativity? No. They’ve done their best, given it all the support they can -but they must surely recognise that in this case the flower has not flourished. Flowers can be like that…

It’s taken me a while to get started on this -not because I had nothing to say, but because I’m not sure whether I wanted to say it.

I’ve been involved in ICT in schools since the very beginning -my first classroom computer (in the 1980′s) was a Sinclair ZX81. For those who were born after it was, it was a tiny qwerty keyboard with a membrane top. You plugged it into a black-and-white TV and programmed the blinking cursor to do something, line by line. If you were really clever and wrote all the lines with the correct syntax, you could make it do a little dance onscreen. Groovy! -and good for making kids learn to write accurately.

Then there were Commodores, BBCs, Acorn/Archimedes, then wow -the first Mac Classic. It was powerful! When it finally expired, we opened it up to see how it worked; the names of all those who worked on building it, from Steve Jobs on down, were engraved on the inside of the case. Plastic history…

Microsoft was all DOS. We acquired a new model IBM; the speed had been increased from 6 Hertz to 12. Wow -twice the speed. And internet -a speed of 9Kb/sec was great -you could see stuff (well, text) arriving.

And so on, on and up. Now ICT Coordinator for the school (Raumati Beach), in the OK (Otaki Kapiti) ICTPD Cluster. Still learning, loving exploring the new technologies, loving working with kids to apply it to learning, working with some great teachers and colleagues, going to ICT conferences, presenting at a few of them. ICT is firmly embedded in my life and always will be.

Currently, following two paths. Along with my boss Mike Farrelly, looking at m-Learning -the use of mobile technologies to enhance learning; and with a number of colleagues, the integration of ICT into the “new” curriculum. Well, it’s not really new -the pioneers amongst us have been doing it a while.

My people of interest: Derek Wenmoth http://blog.core-ed.net/derek/, for the ideas, information, presentations. Sir Ken Robinson, for his ideas on schools and creativity (look for him on Youtube), David Warlick http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/. Key sites: Youtube, TED, Slideshare, Twitter, Core-Ed,

The purpose of this blog is to give me a place to consider and organise my thoughts and ideas. Sometimes they’ll not be fully formed, and I welcome comments -preferably constructive ones! At times I may play devil’s advocate.

At the same time I’m exploring just what I can do with a blog, by way of links, additions, features. So let’s see just where it heads.

Currently I’m runing a Statistics exploration with my Maths class (an accelerate Year 7/8) on cellphone technology -who has what, whether they (can) use it, how they might see it enhancing their learning. Some interesting perspectives emerging -including some bemusement that “their” technology might somehow be hijacked by their teacher for learning purposes!