Tools that lower the floors, widen the walls, and raise the ceilings for designing creative learning experiences
Name
1227784283-MIT.pdf
Size
11.53 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
cbf16a942240649a3a2c8b99b663ad9b
Author(s)
Ahmad, Yusuf(Yusuf Shaan)
Advisor(s)
Mitchel Resnick.
Date Issued
2020
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
There is a stark tension between the creative work that educators engage in and the inflexible tools they often use in their work. These tools don't support their goals, perspectives, or styles of working. In this thesis, we explore how teaching as a form of creative work can be empowered with creative tools and make the case for bringing the playful spirit of technologies for children to the design of technologies for educators. We introduce the idea of creative learning design tools -- tools that are more tinkerable, personal, and collaborative. We describe how educators use these tools to iteratively plan, draft ideas, prototype experiences, extend their imaginations, repurpose materials, and organize their thinking in ways that express their epistemological styles. We highlight how educators can make more of their thinking visible to themselves and others, supporting reflective practice and opening up new opportunities for collaboration. This in turn surfaces bottom-up innovations, produces work that can be readily repurposed, and encourages creative risk taking. We explain how we repurposed existing tools as creative learning design tools and why we used one in particular (Milanote) instead of developing our own tool. Through collaborations with educators ranging from novice public high school teachers in low-resource settings to experienced university faculty teaching in open-ended contexts, we describe how a creative learning design tool can lower the floors, widen the walls, and raise the ceilings for designing creative learning experiences.
Description
Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, September, 2020
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 128-131).
Subjects
Program in Media Arts and Sciences
MIT Department
Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
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