Course Reflection

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This has been an amazingly interesting course that has shown me the kind of world that can exist by utilizing the power of the Internet through online education.  The learnings that took place in this class were different when compared the traditional Center for Distance Learning (CDL) classes that I have taken over the past 2 1/2 years as the use of social media and ongoing communication with the class happened frequently and sharing of everyone's ideas was strongly encouraged.  The only social media tool that I had used in the past was Facebook, primarily for sharing pictures of my family and contacting old and new friends.  The Facebook group, CMC11, proved especially useful for communicating with everyone that was in the course as well as others that had been in the course previously or individuals that were just interested in the Multicultural Communication aspect.  This course also showed how creativity happens and how to best cultivate it to produce regular results.  I thought that learning about MOOCs and how people across the world can take advantage of using this resource to obtain a free education.  Cognitive biases were interesting to study as people generally handle similar situations in a way that they have proven to work; however there are many different learning types and personalities that handle problems differently.  I also liked learning about how creativity, innovation, and risk are tied together in the workplace and how a project team can benefit from diversity and how cultivating discussion between managers and employees is critical.  I would strongly recommend this class and type of learning to anyone that is looking for a refreshing change in the way that we connect with each other with the shared goal of becoming educated and experienced.

Creativity, Video Games, and MOOCs

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David Gauntlett’s Making is Connecting video informed us that our culture places a heavy emphasis on television and the time spent on it on a daily basis (Gauntlett, 2010).  I also agree with his point about the majority of video games being very linear; however there are a few exceptions such as Minecraft, the SimCity series, RollerCoaster Tycoon, and the Sims series.  These games may not be as action-packed as other popular titles but they allow for the user to create their own world while still experiencing unpredictable events.  Another similar example is Second Life One, which is not really considered a game, but is a virtual world that works on the same principles of being powered by multiple users’ creativity to make the world allowing individuals to express their own unique creativity by building a custom avatar, home, and store.  There was also an interesting game study showing that there is no right way to play the game and that many people made their world or their sims a version of what they were or actually experienced in real life (Griebel, 2006).  One of the wonderful things that I have learned about MOOCs is that there a lot creative elements throughout the entire experience.  This particular MOOC demonstrated how we can connect across the world in many different ways through social media, blogs, YouTube, e-mail, and video chats.  Blogging, linking, and using Web 2.0 tools are all methods of expressing an individual’s creativity while having the ability to increase their connectivism (Gauntlett, n.d.).

References:

Gauntlett, David (2010).  David Gauntlett: Making is Connecting, January 2010.  Referenced from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF4OBfVQmCI&feature=youtu.be

Griebel, Thaddeus (2006).  Self-Portrayal in a Simulated Life: Projecting Personality and Values in The Sims 2.  Referenced from http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/griebel

Gauntlett, David (n.d.).  Making is Connecting.  Referenced from http://makingisconnecting.com/

Hewlett Packard's STEM initiative

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Hewlett Packard (HP) started an initiative in 2010 to assist with the core science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learnings that occur throughout the world.  Their goal is to engage students to assist them with using computers to solve major social issues by improving their problem-solving capabilities.  HP is doing great works through spreading this initiative to encourage students’ exploration of current knowledge and creating their own creative ideas to be applied to real world issues.  Collaboration with other partners in Egypt, Africa, India provide motivated students with the opportunity to make a better future for themselves by enhancing their analytic and technical skills to build upon their personal knowledge preparing them for college-level learning experiences.  Students learn about cloud computing concepts, particularly the virtualization aspect, and how cloud technology can be used to solve greater world issues.  By connecting with similar STEM learning programs HP has been able to begin the process of bridging the gap between low-income students by giving them the ability to use webcams to perform video-conferencing, participate in webinars, and become connected to other online learners around the world (Hewlett Packard, 2010).

Reference:

Hewlett Packard (2010).  HP Catalyst Initiative.  Referenced from http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2010-HP-Catalyst-Initiative.pdf

Creativity and the Youth of Today

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Until our recent Google Hangout on 4/6/13 I had strongly felt that the technology of today is crippling the creativity of today's youth.  Having a 3 and 6 year old has made more sensitive to this as one of the best parts of being a child is pretending that wooden blocks are tanks and that plastic army men are waging war across the house.  Colleen's comment about how they don't necessarily lose creativity, but achieve creativity at a higher level made me start to reevaluate my point of view.  I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to write about this during this week’s blog post.  After doing further research I modified my view on this topic as technology is not the blame for the decrease of creativity in our culture, but may be directly related to how the early educational system has changed in the last few decades.

One of the articles in the CDL project page reinforced my belief that kids are becoming less creative as a study showed that since 1990 children have been less able to produce creative ideas that are unique or original.  This doesn't mean that this is true for every child, but overall seems to ring true according to the research.  What I think is the most important point from our video discussion and the NBC article is that creativity needs to be nourished on a consistent basis and not suppressed (Rettner, 2011).  My daughter, Jayden, has been in school for almost 2 years and I am surprised to see the amount of generic homework that comes home every week to reinforce the math, reading, and writing skills as well as the lack of creativity in the classroom.  It seems that the education system has changed in the last 30 years to have a lesser focus on music and art, and a more rigid focus on rules, regulations, and testing.  Although I am not good at art or music I still enjoy it and believe that every individual has the ability to create unique and creative pieces.  I understand that this is to help improve on the New York educational system by ultimately creating smarter students when they get to the point of graduation followed by higher education experience, but it appears that it may ultimately change society in the long run if there isn't a drastic change to the educational system at an early level.  The world needs more software developers, independent entrepreneurs, inventors, and authors that bring their creativity to their work.  Children’s IQ has been shown to increase, however their creativity has decreased over the recent years according to Torrance’s creativity tests (Newsweek, 2010).

With the technology available in movies, television, computers, smart phones, and tablets it doesn’t seem that much is left for the imagination.  At 36 years old I can appreciate the interesting things that technology can do, but it still doesn’t compare to reading a good book like Fahrenheit 451 or The Hobbit which allows your mind to paint the picture in your mind based strictly on the author’s words. 

References:

Rettner, Rachael (2011).  Are Today's Youth Less Creative & Imaginative?  Referenced from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44121819/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/are-todays-youth-less-creative-imaginative/?fb_ref=.TlaScMsLuZ9.like&fb_source=home_oneline#.UWHSspNwpAK

Newsweek (2010).  The Creativity Crisis.  Referenced from http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html

Padlet resource

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I would like to share a Padlet wall with the group to show the learning experiences that I have had in the CMC course: http://padlet.com/wall/kzdfv4cdhw .  I recommend using this site as a Web 2.0 tool to document your artifacts.  Enjoy!