Are+iPads+Creative?

// "Anyone who does not think the iPad is a creative device, clearly does not have one." //

You may have been expecting a list of wonderfully creative apps?

Well, it's not as simple as that. . ..

The flexibility and wide range of available apps enables the iPad to ably support creative use, however the level of creativity endeavoured or achieved is primarily in the hands of the user. On several occasions it has been stated that "We are not looking at iPads because they are not good for lengthy typing" - I would argue strongly that "lengthy typing" is not a feature of good educational practice. If all schools are doing with technology is replacing pen and paper with a word processor and a keyboard they have really missed the point. Some others dwell on what an iPad can't do rather than celebrate the new things it can do. These are all errors in teacher understanding of the role of technology in schools.

media type="custom" key="27752487" media type="custom" key="23772542" "Traditional" computer software often required extensive operational knowledge to support creativity. What the iPad does well, through its intuitive operational process, is take out the mechanics of the task and allow the user to be more engaged with the learning process than with the technology. There are many wonderfully creative constructive Apps that inspire and support users to move beyond text based production and incorporate engaging multimedia components into their work. iPads have the potential to be wonderfully versatile creative devices, but they can only achieve that within a creative classroom. Our role as educators is to create a learning environment that empowers our students with the scope to build deep knowledge and understanding through creative engagement. That does not come from merely word processing.

An interesting **article in Time Tech** explores the notion that with creation devices it is all about context, explore the functionality and not the physical components.

The article **Are We Wringing the Creativity Out of Kids?** states that is we were to ask the question **//Do you think you’re creative?//** to a group of second-graders, about 95 percent of them will answer “Yes.” Three years later, when the kids are in fifth grade, that proportion will drop to 50 percent—and by the time they’re seniors in high school, it’s down to 5 percent.

This perfectly supports Sir Ken Robinson's inspiring TED talk **Do Schools Kill Creativity?** - and his animated **Changing Education Paradigms** - both should be watched more than once.

Following are my notes from a recent ISTE conference session on Creativity. Does your classroom look like this?