Revista simpozionului Eficiență și calitate în educație - 19 mai 2017 Eficiență și calitate în educație | Page 83
CREATIVE AND COLLABORATIVE LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES –
INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
Victoria Șerban, Colegiul Național „Gheorghe Lazăr” Sibiu
Abstract:
This paper argues in favour of using learning technologies in order to enhance students’ creativity and
collaboration, two of the most important 21st century skills. Some examples of such digital tools are given
with brief explanations and illustrations. The idea of moderate and carefully planned use of technology is
suggested in order to ensure a safe and productive learning environment.
Key words: creativity, collaboration, digital tools, ICT skills.
It is common knowledge nowadays that in schools we are trying to prepare students for
jobs that do not yet exist and for tasks that we cannot possibly imagine. And still, as
teachers, we need to make the most of the situation and educate students for the
unpredictable future. One way of doing this is to focus on developing 21 st century skills that
would enable our students to ask the right questions, engage in meaningful discussions,
negotiate, work in a team or find the best solution to any problem. The four Cs -
communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking – are among the most
frequently cited transferable or applied skills, considered to be of critical importance in
order to succeed in today’s world. ICT skills are also on top of the list.
Still, to paraphrase Sir Ken Robinson, it might be argued that technology kills
creativity and critical thinking, not to mention communication. Information is readily
available and the internet can give us an answer to any problem. So, why think, anyway?
A class full of students waiting for the teacher to look the other way so that they can
quickly type a message on their phones or check their friends’ latest photo on Facebook is
probably not an uncommon sight. Can we turn these tools for distraction into tools for
learning? Should we ban them altogether and engage in creative tech-free activities that
will help our students grow or is it possible to make these gadgets our allies?
It cannot be denied that using different platforms and applications can foster
students’ language acquisition, improve their spelling, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary
or their receptive and even productive skills. This paper will focus, however, mainly on how
we can help our students develop their creativity and collaboration skills with the use of
technology, which makes it all the more enjoyable and motivating for them.
The platforms, applications or websites suggested below are just a few examples
which will try to prove that, if used appropriately, students’ creativity, critical thinking and
communication skills can be enhanced by using learning technologies. The target
audience ranges from quite low levels (e.g. starters) to more proficient learners, each tool
presenting distinctive features, which enables educators to choose whatever suits the
needs of the students.
Creative Presentations
In her article entitled “Making thinking visible in the English Classroom: nurturing a
creative mind-set” in Creativity in the English language classroom, Chrysa Papalazarou
argues for the visible thinking approach whose aim is “to nurture students’ thinking by
‘externalising’ it when they engage with content, by making it visible.” (37) Publishing their
work and active sharing, which involves valuing other people’s work, are underlying
principles of this approach. This, together with the idea that students should be media
creators not just media consumers nowadays, is reason enough to consider how they can
present their work using digital tools.
When aiming to present information on different topics, students can work
individually or in groups in order to create presentations using different instruments
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