How do you assess creativity?

Harris, J. (2008). Developing a language for assessing creativity: a taxonomy to support student learning and assessment. 

Defining 'creativity' is a complex challenge, and as such assessing creativity can be difficult. Producing anything involves creativity, from an essay to a piece of art, and as such creativity is central to academic work in any discipline.

The above article argues for a need to develop a language to help us assess creativity with rigour and fairness, and proposes a taxonomy to help tutors move beyond intuition. How do you approach the assessment of creativity? What criteria do you use to compare creative work, and what are your thoughts about the taxonomy in the article?

What tools are you using on your lunchbreak?

(Obviously this assumes that you have time to take a lunch break).

I was in the process of putting together another e-Learning lunch when it occurred to me that introducing more tools isn't always helpful. So I wanted to ask you about the online tools and websites you use while digesting your sandwiches.

When you have an idle five minutes, what tools to you use to learn? Where do you go to find the latest news on creativity and education? What would you recommend to others, and why?

Welcome!

TaLKBAC has reached 60 members, and I'm delighted to welcome all those who joined the group in July:

• Frances Andrews, Sales Manager for UK Education Solutions at Panopto

• Vic Boyd, Blended Learning Coordinator at The Glasgow School of Art

• Nick Clement, Creative Director & Experience Designer at the British Interactive Media Association

• Anne Caron-Delion, Senior Lecturer at the University for the Creative Arts

• Rhiannon James, Talent & Strategy Lead (Europe) at SapientNitro

• Hannah Facey, Independent Art & Design Professional

• Lucy Renton, Associate Professor & Faculty Blended Learning Coordinator, Kingston University

• Rebecca Daniels, Senior Advisor at the University for the Creative Arts

• Fiona Macneill, Learning Technologies Adviser at the University of Brighton
  

• Stephen Davies, Lecturer in Design & Learning Mentor at the University for the Creative Arts

I hope you enjoy the discussions on TaLKBAC and find the group to be a useful place to discuss issues of creativity, learning and teaching.

Tony

Spotlight: Maria Costantino (part 2)

In the second part of her interview with TaLKBAC, Maria Costantino explains how she relates theory to practice in her teaching to help students understand the importance of situating and describing their work appropriately. Maria also describes how she teaches students how to research.

TaLKBAC Spotlight: Maria Costantino Part 2

If you missed part 1 of Maria's interview, you can view it here.

1/10 Newsfeed

Before we all disappear for the weekend, I wanted to pull together some of the useful news and articles that have cropped up over the last week.

This week's e-Learning Lunch featured a useful mind-mapping tool called Coggle which also allow you to work collaboratively online.

There was a lovely article on the Brain Pickings blog featuring an interview with Jeanette Winterton on Time, Language, Reading, and How Art Creates a Sanctified Space for the Human Spirit. Winterton believes that “art can make a difference because it pulls people up short.

It says, don’t accept things for their face value; you don’t have to go along with any of this; you can think for yourself.” There are many inspiring quotes in this interview and it's well worth a skim.



HEFCE (the Higher Education Funding Council for England) published a response to a recent report which highlighted the need for a more strategic approach to learning enhancement in universities. HEFCE went on to state that it "wants to play a key role in further enhancing teaching quality and stimulating innovation in a changing higher education and technology context".

 

TaLKBAC launched Spotlight, a new series of interviews with members of the TaLKBAC community, and this week featured part 1 of our interview with Maria Costantino. Maria provided a valuable insight into what it is like to be a critical theory tutor in an art and design university, and we will be bringing you part 2 of the interview next Wednesday.



Edudemic published an interesting article on how technology is rewiring our brains. Danah Boyd, of Microsoft Research, believes that “the techniques and mechanisms to engage in rapid-fire attention shifting will be extremely useful for the creative class whose job it is to integrate ideas; they relish opportunities to have stimuli that allow them to see things differently.” I'd be interested in hearing how you think this juxtaposes with some of the recent articles on how technology is potentially harming our ability to concentrate.

And lastly, I am currently putting together a 10 Days of Twitter event for the TaLKBAC community. I was hoping to launch this on Monday 4th August but I've underestimated the amount of preparation that is required! So please hold tight, we will be running this event over the next couple of months.

Have a great weekend all.

Spotlight: Maria Costantino

We're launching a brand new feature on TaLKBAC today called Spotlight. The aim of Spotlight is to provide a member of the group with an opportunity to share their thoughts and experiences of teaching, learning and creativity with the rest of the community.

Our first ever TaLKBAC Spotlight falls on Maria Costantino, a Critical Studies tutor at the University for the Creative Arts. In part 1 of this interview, Maria provides an insight into her experience of being a tutor in an art and design context and offers some valuable tips on how to provide effective support for students. 

TaLKBAC Spotlight: Maria Costantino Part 1
 

I would like to thank Maria for agreeing to let me interview her, and I hope you enjoy it. Please share any thoughts and questions you may have in the TaLKBAC group. It would be great to learn whether you agree or disagree with any of the points Maria makes, and also to hear about your own experiences of working in an art & design context.

Don't forget to tune in next Wednesday for part 2 of the interview. And lastly, if you would like to be interviewed for TaLKBAC Spotlight I would love to hear from you!

Creating mindmaps with Coggle

Mindmaps are a great way to organise ideas visually, but online mindmapping tools can sometimes be tricky to use. Having tried a number of such tools, Coggle is the most user-friendly and easy-to-use that I've found. And the good news is that it's free.

The video below provides a very quick demonstration of how to create a mindmap using Coggle:

 

Another nice feature is the ability to sign in with your Google account. This has the advantage of storing your Coggles in your Google Drive, and means that you can also invite other people to collaborate on your mindmaps.

If you're wondering how you might use a mindmap in an educational context, this article by TeachThought contains ten ways that teachers can use mindmaps with their students.