Students Who Create Or Consume – Where Do You Think The Balance Should Lie?

Create or consume? The answer is not black and white. It is not one thing or the other.

Every human has the innate desire to create and add value to the world. Something new, something unique – we all aspire to that.

On the other hand, every human must also consume and there is nothing inherently wrong with it. It is necessary!

What is in question here, is whether we have the balance right.

Education systems and their curricula worldwide, including Australia, have a current emphasis on fostering student creativity. The curricula voice for creativity is strong and active. The curricula voice for encouraging student consumerism is relatively silent in comparison.

Why is this so?

Arguably the balance of the two is now out of kilter. A sophisticated, commercial, quick fix, rapid response society breeds consumerism, whereas creativity finds its place best in a world that allows contemplation, dialogue, reflection and inspiration – all of which are often drowned out by the brash, driven reality of contemporary living. It seems that today, consumerism comes naturally and creativity doesn’t.

How do we truly encourage students to break away from merely using what exists and to create something new and of substance?

We believe technology is blurring the edges between the two and that creativity and consumerism are converging. It is becoming more difficult to know whether you have created something, or whether you have been the victim of consumerism and plagiarism.

For example when you buy an App, you have clearly consumed. You use the App to marginally create. The balance has clearly shifted.

The Australian Curriculum – Digital Technologies has responded to redress the imbalance. Creativity, not consumerism, is the focus. But has it gone far enough and has it done a good job? Is it tinkering at the edges?

The answer to these questions are for another time and place, and what better time and place than at the Leading a Digital School Conference, Crown Conference Centre, Melbourne on 25, 26 and 27 August 2016.

Day 3 of the conference is set aside for delegates to consider best ways forward to develop students who create.

Keynote speaker Adrian Camm will argue that mistakes are the pathway to great ideas and innovation. He will show how pushing outside of your comfort zone can be a liberating experience and how inviting students to live the process with you enables them to share the joy of triumph that you can only feel when solving something that you didn’t think was possible.

Keynote speaker Karen Bonanno focusses on STEAM and the potential it has to offer. Karen will explore how a design thinking/inquiry learning approach to project based programs can help students to be thinkers and creators. She will share some curriculum connections within a STEAM framework as pathways to develop students who create. She will show how developing enterprise skills within this environment provides an opportunity for students to take their learning and creativity to another level.

Why not attend the conference to add to your growing knowledge of what is possible with digital teaching and learning, and join the network of like-minded school leaders eager to take the best of the ideas presented, to assist them in developing students who create?

Remember: The conference is being held at the Crown Conference Centre, Melbourne on 25, 26 and 27 August 2016. Find out more in the Conference Flyer. Register now at: www.iwb.net.au/digital

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Education Technology Solutions

Education Technology Solutions has been created to inspire and encourage the use of technology in education. Through its content, Education Technology Solutions seeks to showcase cutting edge products and practices with a view to expanding the boundaries and raising the standards of education curricula. It introduces teachers and IT staff to the latest products, services and developments in education technology with a view to providing practical how-to guidance designed to facilitate the integration of those products and services into the school environment in the most productive and beneficial manner possible.

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