Week 2:Leaping into The Next Yard of Creativity

We work hard to obtain something that we like or need. And upon achieveing it we dwelve in it and get cosy to its nature, thus often choose not to move on or discover others.

"When allowed to do what we want to do, we are most likely to revert to
whatever we previously found enjoyable and/or successful. This amounts to
what I call, “another one of those” artworks. Sad as that is, the worst
part is that the creative process is not being learned." (Marvin Bartel in his blog entitled Teaching Creativity: http://www.goshen.edu/%7Emarvinpb/arted/tc.html )

I find myself being accustomed to the traditional teaching aids that I often use. This is because I not only know how to develpo and use them successfuly but also because they often have received positive response from students. Thus, I never really attempted towards creating something like a video clip. Those vidoe clips I have used before were downloaded from websites, music video or movies clips.

This exposure to create my own video clip is something definitely new for me. Though I have previously used Windows Movie Maker to create vidoe clips, they were hardly educational. Using this entertainmnt tool for educational purpose is very interesting.


Working in groups we planned our project and came up with combining all of our single production into one whole, creating a continuous chain of events that are interrelated. This sounds easy but the difficult part is to develop a story and a continuous event. So, that is exactly what we are doing right now!

How you as a teacher will be learning?

Effective teachers need to learn to as much as they teach. Every lesson is not a lesson for the students only but for the teacher as well. A teacher who keeps herself up-to-date with latest issues, problems, ideas, invention and progress in the field of education in order to improve herself as well as to convey his/ her best to the students.

Technology enables teachers to get to know about the latest happenings in a flash of a second. The fast connection to world of ‘everything’ provided by internet allows today’s teachers to do so without much hustle. With this teachers can learn of and apply the latest and effective techniques immediately.

A teacher also gets to easily connect to other teacher through the existence of technology. This makes it possible for a teacher to share with and learn from others of the profession regarding any issue at hand. Moreover, developing these social networks allows a teacher to an insight of a classroom that he/she may not be able to visit like one in another region.

How teaching is going to affect how your students are learning

“A U.S. Department of Education-funded study of nine technology-rich schools concluded that the use of technology resulted in educational gains for all students regardless of age, race, parental income, or other characteristics. Moreover, a 10-year study supported by Apple Computer, Inc., concluded that student provided with technology-rich learning environments ‘continued to perform well on standardized tests but were also developing a variety of competencies not usually measured. Students explored and represented information dynamically and in many forms; became socially aware and more confident; communicated effectively about complex processes; became independent learners and self-starters; knew their areas of expertise and shared that expertise spontaneously”. ( for more info visit http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/tiol.html#Enhanced )

I believe that the presence of technology opens up a new window for the students to learn. Its colourful, animated, motion-filled, interactive nature definitely captures their attention to stay focused as learning becomes fun. It avoids them from being bored and their attention span is lengthened. This is especially because with technology they learn interactively; they receive response unlike the one way communication they would have with printed material. For instance, as they complete an academic exercise in a computer, the computer guides them through it by providing help if needed and even checks their answers.

Moreover, a whole world of knowledge is opened up for student s through technology. With internet as the central tool, they can get any information on any subject at any time with just a click. This allows them to acquire knowledge of their own choice and interest more than they do at school. This will not only benefit them as they have a advantageous pastime but also fill them with general knowledge.