Blog Prompt 11.6.12

Technology and Creativity

When I taught sixth grade in a galaxy and time far, far away we always did lots of projects…often building objects, large and small, for science, social studies, literature, even math.  One of theprojects we did at the end of the year for several years was math related.  The challenge was to design and build a model dream home given lots of specific directions related to procedures, scale, materials, tools, etc.  Teachers supplied materials and even an Exacto knife (can you imagine giving 25 squirrelly 11 year olds box cutters and turning them loose in a classroom today?). Some of the images I hold in my mind of those times are of kids who had the grandest ideas of what they believe they could build and what that project could do and look like when they finished it. The finished products, especially those that were not heavily ‘coached’ by parents fell quite short of what children envisioned.  Sometimes the student reactions were especially palpable resulting in half-done models destroyed in frustration or finished houses left behind in the classroom at the end of the school year because the builder was embarrassed to take the project home.   This particular project was done by all sixth graders in the school where I taught and was a ‘tradition’ with lots of instructions and limits on creativity. It was not my favorite project (in part because it was not MY project).

MY favorite project integrated literature, scale and ratio as well as artistic, engineering and presentation skills.  The project involved creating a “wax museum” to retell the story of the Hobbit a book that we read in class.  Instead of using wax we created paper maché life-size characters from the book and placed them in tableaus throughout the classroom.  We invited other classes to tour our room as each team of students told the portion of the Hobbit their tableau represented.   The project was always messy, somewhat dangerous (chicken wire, wire cutters, dragon suspended from the ceiling, etc.) but wildly successful, even if I do say so myself.  Part of the success of this project was due to high peer expectations and the availability of age appropriate tools and materials.  The expectations were simple… as a team build a scene that tells an assigned piece of the Hobbit story using an appropriate scale and tools that did not require a lot of fine motor coordination (unlike the precise drawing, cutting and gluing required in the house building project).  The products of the projects were the creations of teams of students.  Each individual on the team was able to contribute according to his/her skill, interests and talent.  All felt pride ofownership and accomplishment.

Where am I going with this story?  In MY projects we were lucky not to have any serious injuries except for some wire punctures(no lost eyes) and there was that time that a candle making project resulted inan electrical fire and some spilled hot wax (fire department not called and no skin grafts were required).  The key concept in the first paragraph of this post is that kids have great taste when it comes to projects… it’s the execution of the vision that often fails them.  The lack of motor skill, the inaccessibility of materials and tools, the constraining directions all contribute all too often to a sense of disappointment if not failure. 

Finally, my point:  Technology enables kids to do what they dream and practice leads to perfection.  The perfect poster:  Glogster.  The perfect 3-D fly-through drawing: Google Sketchup.  An animation: XtraNormal.  A professional grade presentation: Animoto, Prezi, Powerpoint.  A movie: MovieMaker, iMovie.  When schools get around to ordering them: 3-D printers, MakerBotis now available and not too expensive, it will allow kids to make three dimensional models of just about any thing they can dream up.  

Also, where do good ideas come from, anyway?

The blog prompt:  First, click on and review the above links.  Then riff on the connections between and among the topics of teaching, project based learning, educational technology and creativity. Draw on your own experiences as a student or as a professional participant in schools.  A paragraph or so in your blog should do it, longer if you wish. 

Do it before our next class, please.

Finally, comment to this post with your name so that I can see that you read it.