Are Schools Killing Creativity? – Online Video Sites

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity

His contentions all kids have talent and school squashes it. Creativity should be at same concern as literacy. If you are not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original. Educating people out of their creative capacities. Educated out of creativity. Humorous, hierarchy the same math, language, humanities, arts at the bottom. Educate progressively from the waist up. Education arises out of industrialization, hierarchy valued, class choice follows, and arts diminish.

What a powerful and entertaining speaker Sir Ken Robinson was in his defense of schools killing creativity. His argument is logical, we see this in students, and we see parents that promote in many aspects of their children’s lives in that failure is not an option. The arts are an area that is frequently subjected to ridicule and economic cuts, yet this is the cornerstone to cultivate objectivity, multi-perspective, analytical thinking. When subbing I was fortunate to cover for an outstanding art teacher in West Irondequoit. His students came into the classroom, worked with a variety of different mediums, and created their final work off of the same still life. This experience assisted my instruction in challenging students’ open-endedness, using historical facts to support alternative historical interpretations, and while fostering respect for differing views.

In regards to the online video, I have utilized YouTube quite often; however, need to preview, check for appropriateness and accuracy of information. TeacherTube has been effective in bringing into the classroom another instructor or topic expert for the students listen to for a few minutes. I like the concept of Next Vista, but agree that this will be a time intense project that will grow gradually over time as relevant educational avenues emerge. The advantage is that the video segments are short, previewed for appropriateness and academic related. The overarching goal to get people to remix, create, and maintain an academic focus in an community forum, preserving the criteria while offering free access to everyone is outstanding. On a different video site that was new to me was ClipBlast. This site had a multitude of clips that are relevant to my subject area.

I have used these clips for direct instruction, but am also interested in having students create their own video clips demonstrating accuracy of information, analysis, and creativity of sophisticated quality producing a video essay.