If you are located in the Seattle area and want to spend a day learning about creativity, constructivism, and technology, be sure to check out The Pacific Northwest Constructivist Celebration.
Participants will enjoy the day’s activities, complimentary creativity software and a hearty lunch all for just $55. This event is a joint effort between the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), the Northwest Council for Computer Education (NCCE), and the Constructivist Consortium.
Dr. Dennis Harper, founder of Generation YES will be there too!
Appearing this month in Creative Educator magazine is Part 2 of the article series What Makes a Good Project by Gary Stager.
In Raising our Standards, Developing Projects that Endure, Stager argues that good projects meet higher standards than those found in state mandated lists of curricular objectives.
I suggest that educators plan and evaluate student projects based on a loftier set of goals. Teachers should embrace the aesthetic of an artist or critic and create opportunities for project development that strive to satisfy the following criteria. Is the project:
• Beautiful • Thoughtful
• Personally meaningful
• Sophisticated
• Shareable with a respect for the audience
• Moving
• Enduring
The first ever Constructivist Celebration in the Pacific Northwest is an opportunity for you to let your creativity run free with the world’s best open-ended software tools in a collaborative setting with enthusiastic colleagues who share your commitment to children, computing, creativity and constructivism. You might think of this as a spa day for your mind and soul!
Participants will enjoy the day’s activities, complimentary creativity software and a hearty lunch all for just $55. This event is a joint effort between the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), the Northwest Council for Computer Education (NCCE), and the Constructivist Consortium.
Dr. Dennis Harper, founder of Generation YES will be there too!
Go to www.constructivistconsortium.org for more information and to register. Space is limited and past events have sold out quickly.
This is an environment in which educators can reacquaint themselves with the joy of learning while expanding their vision of the ways in which computers may be used and interact with some of the most powerful thinkers of our time.
The four-day institute, July 13-16, dedicates a large chunk of time to learning by doing. Participants engage in personally meaningful projects that challenge their creativity and build upon the expertise of the community. The Constructing Modern Knowledge faculty is comprised of remarkable teachers who love learning and teaching.
Last year’s projects included:
Kinetic sculpture
Videogame design
Simulation building
Robots that played musical instruments
Puppets that roared
…and much more
Best of all, amazing connections were made between subject areas. Art teachers collaborated with mathematicians while kindergarten teachers shared her molecular models with an accomplished scientist. A good time was had by all!
Manchester is a small New England city with a great airport serviced by most major US airlines and terrific restaurants within walking distance of the institute site, The Radisson Hotel. There is a free airport shuttle and discounted hotel rates for participants. Manchester is also a convenient drive from most of New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.
Faculty: Besides yours truly, the faculty includes Dr. Cynthia Solomon (one of the three people who invented Logo), John Stetson and legendary educator and author of more than 40 books on teaching and learning, Herbert Kohl. Gary Stager is the organizer and host.
Guest Speakers include:
Deborah Meier - a Macarthur Genius honored for her decades of service and innovation in urban public education. Ms. Meier is the “mother” of the small schools movement and her Central Park East in NYC and Mission Hill in Boston provide stunning examples of creative, compassionate, competent public education.
Lesa Snider King - one of the world’s leading experts on digital photography and imaging. She is such a great teacher that even I understand Photoshop while watching her perform her magic. Lesa just authored the new Photoshop CS4, the Missing Manual.
Peter Reynolds - the award-winning author, illustrator, animator, software developer and inspirer will host a CMK Reception at his famed FableVision Studios at the start of Wednesday night’s Night Out in the Big City (Boston)
Registration includes:
Four-days of learning adventures
Conference dinner
Night Out in the Big City (Boston) beginning with a reception hosted by Peter Reynolds at the famed FableVision Studios
Free creativity software from Tech4Learning, LCSI, Inspiration and FableVision
The MacArthur Foundation brought together educators, “tinkerers,” curators, artists, performers and “makers” to grapple with questions around ensuring that all students benefit from learning in ways that allow them to participate fully and creatively in public, community, and economic life.
These interviews from five of the participants were produced to provide some insights into the thoughtful and passionate conversations from that convening.
These videos make connections between tinkering, innovative ideas, the idea of making work public as in a studio, creativity and collaboration, the ability to incorporate criticism, and more. Well worth watching!
Seymour Papert, the father of educational computing, often used the French word bricolage to describe the kind of playful attitude both children and scientists use to tinker, build, test, and rebuild their way to solving problems. Bricolage has the additional advantage (besides being cool sounding) of implying that you are using materials that you find around you - a very eco-green idea!
Problem-solving in schools is typically taught as an analytical process with clear plans and steps, like the “scientific method.” But bricolage is clearly closer to the way real scientists, mathematicians and engineers solve problems. Sure, they make plans. But they also follow hunches, iterate, make mistakes, re-think, start over, argue, sleep on it, collaborate, and have a cup of tea. Bricolage encourages making connections, whereas School tends to like “clean” disconnected problems with clear, unambiguous step-by-step solutions.
“For planners, mistakes are steps in the wrong direction; bricoleurs navigate through midcourse corrections. Bricoleurs approach problem-solving by entering into a conversation with their work materials that has more the flavor of a conversation than a monologue. ” - Papert & Turkle
* Note: the Papert & Turkle quote is from their seminal paper, Epistemological pluralism and the revaluation of the concrete. I found this on the Edutech Wiki, hosted by the University of Geneva.
I hope you had a chance to look at the whole Creative Educator magazine, because it’s great. It’s published twice a year by Tech4Learning, publisher of creativity software for K-12 schools
The Creative Educator is fully available online, and in addition to the project article, this month’s issue has some great articles.
Universal design - tales from a 4th grade classroom about using software that includes ALL students
Bloom and Marzano for the 21st century
Digital Storytelling
Portfolios - and an interview with Helen Barrett, a pioneer and thought-leader of the digital portfolio movement
Lessons and ideas from classroom teachers using creativity software to enhance learning
The articles are all online, and every issue can be downloaded as a PDF. But if you live in the U.S. there’s also a way to get the good ol’ fashioned paper version for FREE - just subscribe here.
There is a vast difference between being creative and creating something.
You can write a creative report about bridge building, or design a bridge that holds weight.
You can make a creative video about careers in programming, or write a computer program.
You can build a creative website with links to sites about solar heating, or construct a working model of a solar panel.
You can blog creatively about saving the environment, or you can start a movement to do it.
Building a real bridge or writing a computer program or constructing a solar panel or committing time to a cause is constructingsomething real. It is a different educational experience than reportingaboutsomething. Both are valuable learning experiences. Both should be present in a well-rounded education.
However, when we talk about Web 2.0, the focus is often on information gathering, sharing and presenting. This short-sighted focus on information and reporting misses the most crucial part of learning — constructing. It is an incomplete picture of what we want students to learn and be able to do.
If you are located in the Seattle area and want to spend a day learning about creativity, constructivism, and technology, be sure to check out The Pacific Northwest Constructivist Celebration.
There is a vast difference between being creative and creating something.