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Description
Session Description
Creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration skills are often seen as key to preparing students for progressively more complex life and work settings in the 21st century. It can be difficult bringing students together that have unique and diverse backgrounds; sharing their knowledge, opinions, what they understand and how they reached those viewpoints can be a challenge. This presentation will address the conference theme of creativity across the curriculum. We will explore how ClassNotebook and other similar tools such as Evernote can be used to develop creativity, collaboration and communication skills from two different perspectives:
• From a student perspective we will explore the benefits of using a digital scrapbook to enable dance students to be ready and equipped for industry.
• From a teaching perspective, we will explore how OneNote can be used as a tool to create fun and stimulating learning resources. Introducing fun, structure, competition and reward for students to both engage and assess their learning.
In this presentation we will explore the possibilities to teach curiosity, open-mindedness, problem solving and imagination. Can we create welcoming and fun learning spaces for students that they can engage with to enhance the learning process and allow these skills to flourish?
HEA (2014) focuses on students thinking of themselves not as passive consumers but as active and dynamic participants in a collaborative style of learning. We will share the design and approach to creating a digital scrapbook for learners studying dance, how this has helped them engage both in and out of the classroom and encouraged them to work flexibly and creatively. Touching on elements of experiential, social and constructivism learning theories we explore how this has been embraced by all students, regardless of their preference for technology for formally capturing peer feedback with both low-tech paper approaches to more high tech.
As part of generating stimulating learning environments through the use of digital resources, there has been a rise in the use of ‘Gamification’, largely due to the increased availability of a wider range of technology and apps than ever before. HEA (2018) define gamification as “the integration of gaming into learning experiences to increase engagement and motivation”. We will explore how teaching via gamification increases engagement and motivation by challenging students and enhancing teamwork. As well as formative assessment, this approach has encouraged them to interact with one another, and further developed their communication, creative and critical thinking skills.
References
HEA, 2018. Gamification and Games-Based Learning. [Online] Available at: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/gamification-and-games-based-learning [Accessed 13th May 2019].
HEA, 2014. Engagement through partnership: students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. [Online] Available at:
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/resources/engagement_through_partnership.pdf [Accessed 13th May 2019]
