Active Learning, Creativity, and the Digital World

 Method

My method for ensuring my resources involved searching through the library for: "active learning" AND creativity AND (technolog* OR digital).  This was limited to research published since 2015, peer-reviewed articles.  I also read up on the publishing journals to check for signs of predatory publishing that might suggest the articles were not truly peer-reviewed.

Active Learning, Creativity, and the Digital World

One of the learning theories I have a lot of interest in is active learning, and it is something I have been attempting to incorporate more in my own instruction.  "Active learning has been described as both involving students in doing things but also in thinking about what they are doing (Gordy et al., 2018, 1)."  Although Gordy, Jones and Bailey focused on higher education, they describe active learning and how students engage in it differently in the digital age.  Now, students can find new information in seconds and multi-task during classes as they learn.  It engages them in a different way, and according to Gordy et al., this represents the time and effort students are devoting to activities that are academically meaningful and encourage personal growth.

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To bring this research to a primary education perspective, Klapwijk and Van Den Burg (2020) suggest that design and technology activities can engage students with active learning and developing "original and relevant solutions (8)."  They identify student drive as an obstacle, however, as some students may not use time purposed for active learning to search for or design their own solutions.  Because active learning and digital design may encompass too much as a whole, including creativity and practical skills, students may be overwhelmed.  Klapwijk and Van Den Burg identify a possible solution as explicitly laying out learning goals and intentions at the start of assignments, or during a pre-assessment period, so students can focus on the task itself.

There are many ways to involve students in active learning using technology identified by Apergi et al. (2015), including using Google Drive, to help students learn to be self-reliant.  These methods help because students work with the teacher, as a unified group, towards a learning goal.

In short, there are many ways technology can aid active learning in the classroom, but it must be done in a way to support student learning without overwhelming them.

References

Apergi, A., Anagnostopoulou, A., & Athanasiou, A. (2015). E-learning for elementary students: The web 2.0 tool Google Drive as teaching and learning practice. World Journal of Education, 5(3). https://doi.org/10.5430/wje.v5n3p1

Gordy, X. Z., Jones, E. M., & Bailey, J. H. Technological innovation or educational evolution? A multidisciplinary qualitative inquiry into active learning classrooms. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 18(2), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.14434/josotl.v18i2.23597

Klapwijk, R., & Van Den Burg, N. (2020). Involving students in sharing and clarifying learning intentions related to 21st century skills in primary design and technology education. Design and Technology Education, 25(3).