Creativity

At Generation Text Online, we understand that a 21st Century educational curriculum must include the 4 C’s; critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity. Some experts claim creativity to be ‘the crucial 21st century skill we’ll need to solve today’s pressing problems and that creativity in education is vital to fuel the economies of the future.” (1)

“Human beings are essentially born creative–from infancy on we find innovative ways to negotiate life. The most creative people find ways around obstacles because they see them not just as roadblocks but also as opportunities. We often think about creativity as making something, but in fact the root meaning of the word means ‘to grow’. When we are creative we feel as if the world and all that is in it is vibrantly alive. Creativity’s by-products are some of the major achievements of civilization–from the invention of the wheel to Mozart’s sonatas.” (1)

At Generation Text Online our focus is to infuse creativity into the learning process. Our approach uses video and real life screen shots as a method of making content more interesting and relevant to real life. Generation Text Online understands that creativity fuels excitement of learning and allows us to develop content and curriculum that is engaging.

The Gen Text Framework guides teachers, parents and business leaders to use creative teaching and learning strategies and techniques to solve real world problems in the following ways:

Encourage students to look for new approaches of solving problems
Try new ways of thinking
Push students to discover more than one solution for the same problem
Connect what we are teaching to student interests and real life experiences
Encourage students to experiment and to innovate
Refrain from giving students answers but rather give them the tools they need to uncover the answers or to explore new avenues.
Find new and original ways to approach feelings and issues
Free up each students’ own thinking
Guide students to uncover their passions
Role model what it looks like to be a thinker that is open to new ideas
Uncover ideas by asking people to share their personal experiences
Energize students by encouraging visual thinking.
Strengthen students ability and confidence to build on other peoples’ ideas, creations and achievements

The Gen Text methodology and practicum supports educators in preparing students with college and career readiness skills. Business and Industry need a workforce that can think outside of the box and innovate. As educators and business leaders our role is to support and facilitate the development of these skills.

The Generation Text Online approach provides opportunities for students to become competent users of technology, to collaborate by finding solutions together in groups and in pairs, in the classroom and in the community. Our lessons use creativity to engage students and challenge them in the new venue, namely technology. The lessons focus on building knowledge and implementing strategies, which require students to use critical thinking skills, while providing them with the opportunities to reflect upon problem solving in a creative way. By using the 4 Cs students will increase their intelligence, higher level thinking skills, reflective thought processes and will have a better advantage of achieving success in today’s world.

Footnotes:

Finding Your Element, Sir Ken Robinson
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mark-aabear/creativity-in-education-a_b_4156960.html
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/Why-Creativity-Now%C2%A2-A-Conversation-with-Sir-Ken-Robinson.aspx