i think the best learning technology is the smartphone & learning games of some sort. give a child a phone & they will intiutively start playing games, so why not make the gaming part of the learning process. all that is needed is curriculumn based learning platform that includes games as part of the learning curve
Hi Ray. Yes ... but in all the examples above, we have children making with their hands and collaborating in person, to create new things, and design solutions to problems. Smartphones can be great but hands-on playful engagement with others is, I would say, more valuable.
Hi Mr. David, I am new to comment here and feel impressed with your explanation about innovating education. I agree that creativity is a timeless principle that can apply in any effective learning activities. There is an example from Indonesia, my home country. Since the mid of 2014, a lot of young people have demonstrated better engagement in politics. It is my belief that this occurs partly because a highly inspiring person has been elected as the President of our country. In addition, more national leaders who show sincerity towards creating the welfare of people have gained trust of the public.
This was rarely the case in the years prior to 2014. Recently, a larger number of youth have become active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media via their smartphones to comment about the most recent political news. They post exciting opinions, thought-provoking pictures and unique memes to respond to our officials’ actions and public policies as if they were playing with joy. An Indonesian friend of mine who once was indifferent to politics eventually admitted two weeks ago on FB, “I come to like political affairs, as now there appears to be an exhilarating fight between heroes and bad boys.” This phenomenon is of course picked up by the government, NGOs and media business to more resourcefully engage younger generations in political process through the power of the internet.
In light of that trend, I believe that education of all fields in school, where the youth spend most of their lifetime, has to be creative and not just normative. The textbooks used and the courses provided by teachers can surely be compiled in such a way that kindles students’ creativity and collaboration to propose their own stands of current issues. I think, this is a real challenge for our educationalists and instructors to present a variety of practical insights and interactive media to make the youth focus in their classrooms, so that they may learn as dynamically as they do when on the web.
Hence I would like to ask you, how do you think teachers can best combine their own field of knowledge, other spheres, and communication technology in a lesson to fully attract students? Thanks in advance for your answer. I am big on the benefit of education and have a dream to help enhance the mentality of my country’s people. I pray for your increasingly successful future in academic career and social activity with the goal of spreading creative thinking and innovative capacity to others. Great to know you!
I think part of the answer might be suggested by the ‘Design for Change’ projects I mentioned above. The emphasis is not on textbooks or instruction from teachers—although engaging and inspiring *leadership* can be really valuable—as you suggest in your example from the world of politics.
So a teacher can excitingly *lead* a class into exploring problems in new and creative ways, empathising and making new solutions.
Hello Mr. David, thank you for your prompt reply. I have read again what you write on ‘Learning + designing’ paragraph. Therefore, the key to best combination of learning material to attract students is: 1) engaging them with a problem, 2) asking them for solutions, 3) encouraging them to implement the solutions, and 4) sharing the solutions and the results to inspire others to be creative too? I think I understand better what you mean after writing this strategy by myself. I imagine that step 1 and 2 can be done in a class after a teacher presents a real-world problem, whereas step 3 and 4 should be done outdoors. It makes more sense to me now!
I believe that this strategy can also apply in a situation where we aim to make other people learn and solve a problem. Hope I can use this Design for Change method in the near future and taste its effectiveness. Thanks again Mr. David for your helpful article, and wish you become even more competent in your field of creativity and arts.
There was one more article before about Outside In thinking and I feel this is in continuity with it. I strongly advocate thinking outside the box and not to be afraid of bending the rules. We dont need traditional rules or traditional ways to serve a purpose, the more we improvise depending upon the current situation the better it will be. If we get afraid of experiments how will we evolve new things.
COMMENTS
BY Ray Kevin
ON February 2, 2015 07:49 PM
i think the best learning technology is the smartphone & learning games of some sort. give a child a phone & they will intiutively start playing games, so why not make the gaming part of the learning process. all that is needed is curriculumn based learning platform that includes games as part of the learning curve
BY David Gauntlett
ON February 3, 2015 01:19 AM
In reply to Ray Kevin:
Hi Ray. Yes ... but in all the examples above, we have children making with their hands and collaborating in person, to create new things, and design solutions to problems. Smartphones can be great but hands-on playful engagement with others is, I would say, more valuable.
BY Yukie
ON February 5, 2015 03:46 AM
Hi Mr. David, I am new to comment here and feel impressed with your explanation about innovating education. I agree that creativity is a timeless principle that can apply in any effective learning activities. There is an example from Indonesia, my home country. Since the mid of 2014, a lot of young people have demonstrated better engagement in politics. It is my belief that this occurs partly because a highly inspiring person has been elected as the President of our country. In addition, more national leaders who show sincerity towards creating the welfare of people have gained trust of the public.
This was rarely the case in the years prior to 2014. Recently, a larger number of youth have become active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media via their smartphones to comment about the most recent political news. They post exciting opinions, thought-provoking pictures and unique memes to respond to our officials’ actions and public policies as if they were playing with joy. An Indonesian friend of mine who once was indifferent to politics eventually admitted two weeks ago on FB, “I come to like political affairs, as now there appears to be an exhilarating fight between heroes and bad boys.” This phenomenon is of course picked up by the government, NGOs and media business to more resourcefully engage younger generations in political process through the power of the internet.
In light of that trend, I believe that education of all fields in school, where the youth spend most of their lifetime, has to be creative and not just normative. The textbooks used and the courses provided by teachers can surely be compiled in such a way that kindles students’ creativity and collaboration to propose their own stands of current issues. I think, this is a real challenge for our educationalists and instructors to present a variety of practical insights and interactive media to make the youth focus in their classrooms, so that they may learn as dynamically as they do when on the web.
Hence I would like to ask you, how do you think teachers can best combine their own field of knowledge, other spheres, and communication technology in a lesson to fully attract students? Thanks in advance for your answer. I am big on the benefit of education and have a dream to help enhance the mentality of my country’s people. I pray for your increasingly successful future in academic career and social activity with the goal of spreading creative thinking and innovative capacity to others. Great to know you!
BY David Gauntlett
ON February 6, 2015 11:25 AM
Hello Yukie
I think part of the answer might be suggested by the ‘Design for Change’ projects I mentioned above. The emphasis is not on textbooks or instruction from teachers—although engaging and inspiring *leadership* can be really valuable—as you suggest in your example from the world of politics.
So a teacher can excitingly *lead* a class into exploring problems in new and creative ways, empathising and making new solutions.
Many thanks for your interesting comments.
BY Yukie
ON February 6, 2015 06:40 PM
Hello Mr. David, thank you for your prompt reply. I have read again what you write on ‘Learning + designing’ paragraph. Therefore, the key to best combination of learning material to attract students is: 1) engaging them with a problem, 2) asking them for solutions, 3) encouraging them to implement the solutions, and 4) sharing the solutions and the results to inspire others to be creative too? I think I understand better what you mean after writing this strategy by myself. I imagine that step 1 and 2 can be done in a class after a teacher presents a real-world problem, whereas step 3 and 4 should be done outdoors. It makes more sense to me now!
I believe that this strategy can also apply in a situation where we aim to make other people learn and solve a problem. Hope I can use this Design for Change method in the near future and taste its effectiveness. Thanks again Mr. David for your helpful article, and wish you become even more competent in your field of creativity and arts.
BY Linda Simmons
ON February 23, 2015 04:54 AM
There was one more article before about Outside In thinking and I feel this is in continuity with it. I strongly advocate thinking outside the box and not to be afraid of bending the rules. We dont need traditional rules or traditional ways to serve a purpose, the more we improvise depending upon the current situation the better it will be. If we get afraid of experiments how will we evolve new things.