EDIM 508 - Creative classrooms (Part 2!)

My student that I have deemed as 'mini-me' in my former post has taken the time to respond, and I would like to share that response with everyone.  Plus I have decided that she is much more talented and creative than I ever allowed myself at that age :) I enjoyed her sassy first line in her email : "So, asking me to do more work on top of the summer assignment work that I already have to do? How very teacher-like of you. I'm just kidding, I put my answer in a Google docs."

"In the drawing classes that I have taken, our main source of inspiration and creativity came from each other. Discussion was almost always encouraged, and together we critiqued and improved each other’s work. Discussion of this kind still takes place in more traditional classes, though it is less frequent, and is what I value most as a source of creativity. In my experience, group projects that contained the right mixture of people turned out much better than what I could have done by myself. The combination of extra hands and extra minds means more ideas can be generated, and students are usually more comfortable asking questions and discussing ideas with their own peers.
New devices and digital media in the classroom can definitely serve as a source of ideas and new ways to present them. At this point students have a wide range of options available when it comes to presenting a project to the class, and often take advantage of them. But the main thing that I can think of that severely limits creativity inside and outside of the classroom are computerized tutors and learning tools, like ALECKS and SAM. The only creativity they support is finding creative ways to avoid doing them. They are repetitive and draining programs that take only one correct answer. If you do them at home for homework, you cannot try and find an explanation that makes it easier for you to understand, you get what they give you or search the internet for a better way to solve the problem. Conversations with a teacher or even peers often result in finding a new way to explain how to solve the problem, and a resulting ‘Aha!’ moment."
-A. Einsig

I also wanted to exemplify just how creative and talented she is.  Here is her latest speed painting.  Enjoy!