E-confident learners promoting creativity and critical thinking through technology

Gareth Mills

QCA

Head of innovation and e-learning

Aims, values and purposes

“Education only flourishes if it successfully adapts to the demands and needs of the time. The curriculum cannot remain static. It must be responsive to changes in society and the economy, and changes in the nature of schooling itself.”

National Curriculum 1999

QCA looking after learners, today and tomorrow

• On learners and learning – cultivate their ‘instinct for learning’.

• On outcomes – what it means to be ‘educated’ for life and work in the 21st century. (skills and dispositions; learning to learn; e-confident learners)

• On freedom and flexibility to innovate –providing space and new opportunities to tailor and customise the curriculum

ICT delivering the wider aims

Developing ‘e-confident’ learners

• Find and critically evaluate information

• Organise, analyse and interpret information

• To promote hypothetical thinking and

problem solving.

• To promote creativity and risk taking –

by exploring and develop ideas iteratively.

• To communicate effectively, presenting

and exchanging ideas- creating not just consuming

To enhance independent learning – when and where learning takes place

To enhance collaborative learning – who is involved

To manage own learning – making informed judgements

Characteristics of creative behaviour

Generative• Playing with ideas often through a ‘fashioning’

processes.• Explore options and more likely to be risk taking. • Imaginative - they envisage what might be • Make connections – see and use analogies• They see relationships between knowledge and skills

Evaluative• Reflecting critically on ideas, actions and outcomes. • Modify and adapt - reframe• Questioning and challenging

Using knowledge as a springboard

Creative behaviour• creativity does not happen in

a vacuum - rarely emerges from a blank canvas

• Pupils need subject-specific knowledge and skills for their creativity to flourish.

• Imitation and transformation

Features of ICT• Unsurpassed source of accessible

information and knowledge.• Ready access to experts,

museums, libraries, galleries – the world of knowledge can be brought into the classroom.

• Makes initial sources of information more engaging – multimedia.

“Creative people are invariably immersed in their subjects or medium. Nobody goes to more concerts than musicians, visits galleries more than artists or reads more science books than scientists” – Ken Robinson

Playing with ideas: keeping options openCreative pupils• explore possibilities,

keep their options open and learn to cope with the uncertainty and ambiguity

• play with ideas, experiment

• try alternatives and fresh approaches

• keep an open mind, adapting and modifying their ideas to achieve creative results.

Features of ICT• Provisionality• Undo and Save as• ‘Trace’ of activity• Develop ideas through a series

of successive approximations• Quality of ICT and socially

credible• Create, test and refine• Risk friendly environment

“A film is made three times. Once in the writing, again in the filming and for a third time in the editing suite” - Brian Helgelend

video

Slides

Making connections - imagination and inspirationCreative behaviour• think laterally and make associations

between things that are not usually connected.

• recognise the significance of their knowledge and previous experience -reinterpret and apply their learning in new contexts

• use analogies and metaphors • generalise from information and

experience, searching for trends and patterns

• communicate their ideas in novel or unexpected ways.

Features of ICT• Working across subject

boundaries • Accessing ideas of

others• Knowledge networks

and communities of practitioners

• Multi-modality – dynamic representation

Analogies by Jonathan Ives, designer

Questioning and exploring possibilitiesCreative pupils• speculate about

possibilities.• imagine, seeing things in

the mind's eye • see possibilities, problems

and challenges • ask 'what if?' • visualise alternatives • look at and think about

things differently and from different points of view.

Features of ICT• Interactivity - simulations• Dynamic representation• Graphic modelling• Speed and automation• Modelling• “investigate the effect of

changing variables”• Using graphs to explore

consequences of actions• Testing “What if

See some examples of enhancing thinking across subjects: www.ncaction.org.uk

Using ICT can help pupils to:

• access, select and interpret information

• review and modify their work to improve the quality

• recognise patterns, relationships and behaviours

• model, predict and hypothesise

• communicate with others and present information

• improve efficiency and accuracy

• be creative and take risks

• gain confidence and independence

E-learning to enhance, enrich and extend

Teaches 3e of ICT SOW

Pupils e-mail each other in the classroom

3E’s School

Pupils e-mail parents examples of good work and ask for information on various topics.

They e-mail work home and from home to school.

They run collaborative projects with a school in France

They send research projects to local council with suggestion for improving local area.

They post examples of work to local artist’s website following up from school visit.

Bythebook School

Teaches 3e of ICT SOW

When using technology it’s important to talk about ICT as a tool for thinking, researching, organising and developing ideas. This is as much about the explicit teaching of thinking processes as about teaching basic technical skills.

Some self-evaluation questionsIn my school how is ICT adding value to:• Thinking skills?• Creativity?• Independent and collaborative learning?• Empowering learners through new opportunities?

Some links – participate in the futures debate

www.qca.org.uk/futures

www.ncaction.org.uk

www.qca.org.uk/subjects/ict

ict@qca.org.uk

millsgj@qca.org.uk