ISTE 2011 The Research Skinny on the 3NETS: Creativity, Communication & Collaboration, Critical Thinking + Cultural Awareness

Cheryl Lemke from The Metric Group (CA) and Ed Coughlin discussed about the "truthiness" in cognitive research on creativity, communication/collaboration, and critical thinking, + cultural awareness. NETS*S standards have specific and high expectations when it comes to students level of knowledge and skills in different content areas in a global perspective.

This session started with the definition of creativity and innovation with regard to: (1) novelty + usefulness = creativity, (2) lateral thinking and creativity, and (3) The Girl and The Pebbles story that Ed has shared.

What are some Characteristics of Creative Thinkers? This includes fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. Creative thinkers look at different ways and have very high levels of self regulated behaviors. In building creativity, it is necessary to value it! (Shalley 1991), conduct open exchanges, promote self-regulation, argue!, value and model divergence, and elicit open-mindedness. It was interesting that Ed Coughlin mentioned about mindsets as an important element in developing creativity and innovation. Mindsets is one of the ideas that Dr. Stephen Covey talked about during his keynote speech during the ISTE 2011 conference. In understanding student's mindsets, there will be better collaboration and learning that will occur

Edward DeBono, through the Cognitive Research Trust ( CoRT), mentioned about Congress commissioning a safety study that determined that yellow vehicles; school buses, taxis, city trucks, etc., are far more visible, and have many fewer accidents, than vehicles of other hues. Legislation is being considered to mandate that all cars be painted yellow.

What does technology bring? Technology brings access to diverse voices, tools for lateral thinking (analysis tools, MindMapping), instant access to information, and new means of expression. Technology, when used and implemented effectively, can truly make significant improvements and changed in teaching and learning.

In understanding thinking, we need to analyze how thinking looks like. Is it just pure memory, does it involve complex things? IQ builders are good tools to assess students' brain activity. Some examples are deck of cards, blink, SET, rush hour (there's an app for that!), and brickout (online). Students who played SET, rush hour, chocolate fix, and waiting increased their score to 32%. In processing speed, students who played games like Spoons increased their scores to 27%.

Ed Coughlin adds that opportunity is not necessarily equal to "building" and critical thinking skills can be taught to students.

There are five categories of thinking skills. These include but not limited to verbal reasoning skills and argument analysis skills. In developing dispositions (Halpern), this involve but not limited to engagement and persistence, planning, open mindedness, and abandoning non productive strategies. In this regard, technology can bring diverse points of view, student resources, teacher resources, and opportunities for audience.