As I’m creating to learn, I’ve been exploring concepts of creativity. Following my own directions to students, I did a brain dump followed by switching to “creativity” as I explored Quora, Google Scholar, and Google. I found several posts on Quora. Gunjan Mehta writes: “Creativity is nothing but the connectivity. It’s all about how we can connect the mechanisms of different products and apply those mechanisms to solve the other problems. You are not creating actually. You are just connecting things.” Supporting his argument, Mehta then includes this gem from Steve Jobs: “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”

In Multimedia Composition, we’ve been trying to connect ideas and immerse ourselves in media. In the last month, we’ve read about creativity in Create to Learn (2017) by Renee Hobbs. (And, yes, I have thought about the irony of reading about creativity rather than creating.) In Create to Learn, Hobbs writes: “Creative people are voracious readers, viewers, and do‐ers. But it’s worth thinking about the quality of choices you make. If you want to learn by creating great stuff, seek out and find great stuff,” (p. 20). So I’ve been trying to surround myself with great stuff, and I’ve been wrapping my mind around the idea of learning by creating versus learning to create. To me, this is a subtle but essential distinction. When learning, too many think “one and done” is “won and done.”

Last week I met with the district’s Literacy Curriculum Review group, where we touched on such concepts of endurance and leverage as we prepared once again to review essential standards. For me, creativity is an enduring concept with timeless leverage. And I must not be the only one with this thought because Creativity is a Universal Construct of the Iowa Core. And one of the greatest challenges I see before us in education is that it takes a creative mindset to truly grow and make connections in the modern age. We “create to learn” and through that creation we improve our learning and our creativity. 

Characteristics of a Blog Post – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Last week I was having students in Multimedia Composition work on their first blog post after reviewing the Characteristics of a Blog Post (Thank you, Professor Troy Hicks, for your part of that lesson!) when an administrator did a walkthrough evaluation. 

• Principal: What are you learning today? 
• Student: What a blog post is and looks like. 
• Principal: What does success of that learning look like to you? 
• Student: When I post the blog. 

Now while some would have preferred the Student to say: “Today we’re producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. . . .” And while I support this core standard, I believe that a dedication to the Universal Constructs is equally essential. And so in Multimedia Composition, I will push students toward clear and coherent writing, AND we will continue our immersion in good things and push ourselves to make connections. Our blogs will not be a “one and done” activity. 

And as we move to an evaluation stage of our second unit, I’ll borrow Prof. Hobbs’s questions for reflection this week: “How are you adding value to the world with your creation? How will audiences react? What are the consequences of your creative work as it may affect the attitudes and behaviors of others? What have you learned about yourself through the creative process?” (p. 19).

Creating to learn is how we strengthen our core in this amazing “network of mutuality.”