LECTURE 3

CREATIVE USE OF ICT IN TEACHING

Y3 BA PRIMARY EDUCATION

2012-2013

ICT AND A FOUNDATION SUBJECT

Be confident and creative in your use of ICT to teach across the primary curriculum, with a particular focus on a specific foundation subject

REFLECTIONS ON ROBINSON

CREATIVITY

“Imagination is not the same as creativity.  Creativity takes the process of imagination to another level.  My definition of creativity is “the process of having original ideas that have value.”  Imagination can be entirely internal.  You could be imaginative all day long without anyone noticing.  But you never say that someone was creative if that person never did anything.  To be creative you actually have to do something.” 

CONSTRUCTIONISM

“Constructionism - the N word as opposed to the V word - shares contructivism’s view of learning as “building knowledge structures” through progressive internalization of actions... It then adds the idea that this happens especially felicitously in a context where the learner is consciously engaged in constructing a public entity, whether it’s a sand castle on the beach or a theory of the universe.

Papert 1991

DIY

DIGITAL MAKERS

We want to equip our young people to be confident contributors and makers, able to harness and control digital technology to positively engage socially and economically with their communities.

We want to see young people, even children, supported to be more critical in their use of digital technologies; taught computational thinking, and using digital tools like 3D printing, control systems, or game making software, to creatively solve problems, make businesses, express them-selves, and influence others.

What is creative teaching? How could ICT support this?

THE ART OF TEACHING

Originality

Playfulness

The pursuit of excellence

“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”

Cecil Beaton

“It took me a lifetime to learn to draw like them”

Picasso, on visiting an exhibition of

drawings by children

“Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.”

Earl of Chesterfield

BEAUTY OR UTILITY?

“If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it:

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

William Morris, 1880

ART OR CRAFT?

I would describe programming as a craft, which is a kind of art, but not a fine art. Craft means making useful objects with perhaps decorative touches. Fine art means making things purely for their beauty.

RMS

A DESIGN SCIENCE?

In the arts anything goes; the imperative is to create a powerful experience for the audience. That is not true for teaching; it must do more than that. It also has a formally defined goal. The imperative for teaching is that learners develop their personal knowledge and capabilities… It is closer to the kind of science, like engineering, computer science, or architecture, whose imperative it is to make the world a better place: a design science.

SOFTWARE CRAFTSMANSHIP

Not only working software,

but also well-crafted software

Not only responding to change,

but also steadily adding value

Not only individuals and interactions,

but also a community of professionals

Not only customer collaboration,

but also productive partnerships

CRAFT OVER ART

Craftsmanship is built upon strong relationships. Focus on delivering value to your customer over advancing your own self-interests.

As a craftsman you are primarily building something that serves the needs of others, not indulging in artistic expression.

The things we build for customers can be beautiful, but must be useful. Part of the process of maturation encompassed by this pattern is developing the ability to sacrifice beauty in favor of utility if and when it becomes necessary.

TEACHING AS CRAFT

Growth mindset - effort is what makes you smart or talented

A need to adapt and change

Pragmatic rather than dogmatic

Share what we know

A willingness to experiment (and be proven wrong)

Taking control of and responsibility for our destinies

Debate, dissent and disagreement are better than blind deference

A commitment to inclusiveness

Skills rather than processes

Situated learning (expert in earshot)

THE CRAFTSMAN

“The laborer with a sense of craft becomes engaged in the work in and for itself

the satisfactions of working are their own reward

the worker can control his or her own actions at work

skill develops within the work process

work is connected to the freedom to experiment”

“It is by fixing things that we often get to understand how they work.”

Preparatory work for your foundation subject teaching resource.

Development of technical skills. 

FOR NEXT WEEK

… and try to find some work done by a primary pupil using ICT in your subject