The Space of Creativity

The technology-infused classroom looks much different than a traditional classroom. I heard a Keynote the other day where the speaker was talking about “the space of creativity.” He had some interesting research. With everyone ones permission, he watch hours upon hours of “big brother” video footage at a scientific research facility. He wanted to know where, in what spaces, do these major scientific breakthroughs take place. Do researchers experience a great revelation while standing over the microscope? Do great ideas come while researchers pour over thick stacks of documents? Or, do they come in comfortable seating area with padded chairs and a small table, where creative minds can speak freely, in conversations with other creative minds, like a coffee house for example. It turns out, this is the kind of space where we see the greatest innovation (source)! But how does this “coffee house” design compare to our classrooms? Can we teach in a room that looks like a coffee house? More importantly, can students learn in this environment? I say YES! However, the role of the teacher will change. We will have to find a balance between “aimless chatter in the coffee house” and something that may seem like aimless chatter but may (at some point) give birth to a marvelous idea! Here are a few photos of typical office space at Lego and Google.

We plan for this with training and restructuring. It’s going to be a long road! But we need to keep an open mind, train our staffs and restructure our systems. We need to recruit these creative minds in to the education business. We need to learn from industry .These innovations can not only produce better competition for the global economy, but also bring innovative ideas back to education. This 5 minute video shows how innovation in these creative spaces can quickly lead to advances in educational technology.