This week I turned to my Honors English 9 students for their input on creativity in the classroom. I first asked them to answer four different questions on a sheet of paper, and then we discussed each question as a class. The questions were:
1. How do your teachers currently allow you to express creativity in the classroom?
2. What could teachers do to help you better express creativity in the classroom?
3. What kinds digital media are teachers currently using that you would like to see more of in your classes?
4. How could teachers use digital media to better help you express your creativity?
I purposefully left out any reference to digital media in the first two questions because I wanted to see if anyone would mention it on their own. Out of 27 students, only three mentioned anything regarding digital components. Two responses referenced how they enjoyed teachers using videos to help explain topics. One referenced how they enjoyed when teachers invited them up to the Promethean board to interact with the board in some way. The overwhelming majority mentioned nothing specifically regarding digital media, and the consensus was that they would like more hands-on activities and they would like to have more choice in what they do.
In regards to questions #3, and how teachers are using digital media to help foster creativity, most students mentioned that several of their teachers have them create PowerPoints or Prezis. Two students also mentioned videotaping themselves for a Civics project and presenting the video to the class. The only answers that really stuck out were from students who take a Project Lead the Way class and use computer drafting programs and 3-D printers on a regular basis.
On paper, they did not have much input on question #4. I got several answers referencing allowing students to make videos for classes and a few vague references, such as "use more technology in the classroom." I even had several students ask if they could leave the question blank because they did not know what to write. This was a red flag to me, because this group of students is not the type to just freely leave questions blank.
After seeing students struggle so much with question #4, we focused most of our discussion around the topic of how teachers could use digital media to promote creativity. An overwhelming majority said they are just as happy (or even happier) to create traditional projects (posters, dioramas, drawings, paintings, etc.) that do not require technology. There was also a lot of resentment geared towards Prezi. I usually give my students an option of using Prezi, Powerpoint, or Google Slides, but my students said they hate when they are "forced" to use Prezi because it is too hard to use. Although no one wrote about it, someone mentioned a Tic-Tac-Toe project we did in our class with Animal Farm, and students said they would love to do more activities like that. The options ranged drastically from various analytical, reflective, and creative writing assignments to filming videos and creating visuals. Students had to choose any three assignments, and they seemed to like that there was a good mix between technology and non-technology based assignments. This Tic-Tac-Toe discussion also sparked comments about a time I showed a series of snapchats based upon the Odyssey. They said that was an engining way to review some of the events from the poem.
So what do I make of all this? I have two major take-aways from this discussion. First, we need to ensure that when we incorporate new technology in the classroom that we are modelling it so that students fully understand it. The negative comments about Prezi lead me to believe that students were simply thrown into it. Admittedly, since I always give students a choice of what program to use to for presentations, I do not review how to use Prezi. This, along with the fact that students had trouble even thinking of different forms of technology that could use digital media, makes me see this as a challenge as an educator to make more of an effort to introduce students to new forms of digital media. The second take-away I gain is that providing students with more options is the best way to help promote creativity. That includes providing students with several different topic/ project options and also providing them with different ways of synthesizing their ideas for each topic. I will use this insight to plan future lessons that more effectively use digital media to help foster creativity.
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