Using Technology to Teach and Support Student Creativity in the Library

Teachers nowadays face a situation in which students need to be encouraged and taught to develop creative skills, whether these are digital, physical, or less tangible creative pursuits.  There are many programs and apps available for teachers to use to help students develop and explore these skills.  Likewise, there are many theories on the concept of creativity itself.  Vygotsky presented one theory of creative imagination which is summarized by Smolucha and Smolucha (1986) citing four features:

1.      Imagination is the internalization of children’s play.

2.      Imagination is a higher mental function and as such is a consciously directed thought process.

3.      Creative thinking involves the collaboration of imagination and thinking in concepts, which occurs first in adolescence but matures in adulthood.

4.      Both artistic and scientific creativity require the collaboration of imagination and thinking in concepts.

Librarians, especially in schools and academic settings, are in a position where they can support teachers and help students develop creativity in a different setting, especially as it relates to creativity as in Vygotsky’s theory where creative thinking uses both imagination and thinking in concepts.  Fuchs and Medved (2019) address librarians using the ACRL information literacy framework to support creativity and state “the inherent creativity enabled through research and research-based writing becomes inevitable (p. 100).” Creativity here is defined as “the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas (p. 100).”  Not all classes have a class librarian, so in some cases librarians may have limited access to the students and cannot rely on assignments or grades to draw students towards library instruction and space.  Instead, they have embraced technology to help students develop skills to support their creativity and creative thinking.  In many ways, this can be reversed also; they can teach students to embrace their creativity to support their research skills as well.

Librarians may be working with a wide range of students that include multiple grade levels.  Vygotsky outlines the evolution of creativity as children age in his four features, incorporating less play and more directed thought process; there is a similar evolution in the way students interact with new concepts and research.  This can affect the methods librarians will find effective in supporting and motivating creative thinking.  Costello (2015) defines the three levels of K-12 researchers as grazers, loopers, and skimmers.  Elementary school students are more prone to graze information online and can cover large amounts of information without engaging deeply with it.  They may be engaged with reference sources to learn about new topics more broadly.  Middle school students are called loopers for their habit of going back and forth between search results and forming new searches.  This is due to the students modeling research skills they have seen but not having the confidence in their skills yet.   High school students are called skimmers.  It is thought that learning to skim and scan materials in SAT prep classes teaches them this technique.  High school students are more prone to anxiety about the final product of their research.  Some libraries are able to award digital badges to students as they develop different research skills to help build their confidence.  Costello (2015) also proposed fun activities such as online library scavenger hunts to help students learn how to engage with library resources.

While using activities such as online scavenger hunts and helping students earn digital badges to teach them to use library resources efficiently and build confidence in their research skills, librarians can do more to motivate creativity and not just creative thinking.  A common method of doing this is with the use of makerspaces. As Vygostky suggests, this is a way students can use play to direct their thoughts and actions (Smolucha & Smolucha, 1986).  Abram (2015) addresses several types of makerspaces being used in libraries, including FabLabs, Hackerspaces, TechShops and more.  They include space, physically and virtually, for students to explore reading, creative writing, music, coding, programming, and many other creative pursuits.  Makerspaces are not just high-tech set-ups with 3D printers and laser cutters.  Technologies and tools being used by libraries to support makerspaces include discovery tools, repositories, digital commons, and many different apps and types of social media (Shapiro, 2016).  In order to learn to create, students are encouraged and motivated to research the technology, their interests, and the skills and fields they are learning.  According to Abram, “supporting creativity is already part of our [library’s] portfolio (2015, p. 11).”  

Another way librarians are embracing technology to motivate students to develop research skills to support their creativity is through the use of podcasts, blogs, and other broadcasting or showcasing digital tools.  In one example, librarians created podcasts that featured a variety of student work.  Some of these podcasts are student-produced and students share "informing and entertaining culminations of studies," or "provide subscribers with chronicles of ongoing research (Eash, 2006, p. 18).”  Students may read aloud their poems or creative writings; they may also read favorite passages out of books or stories.  Students are encouraged to share the research and creation process to help others realize its messy and nonlinear structure and librarians help supply a digital platform to direct this process.

It is important for librarians to support and teach creativity by connecting with students and teachers using various methods of outreach.  Vygotsky explores how children learn to think creatively and use their imagination through collective social interactions (Smolucha & Smolucha, 1986).  Librarians have to find ways to create these interactions in a welcoming, virtual environment.  Personalizing communications and building connections is important for students to develop their creative thinking skills.  It also builds trust so the library can be viewed as a resource students are comfortable using in their creative pursuits.  Part of this trust and comfort comes from how failure is viewed.  By teaching students to research using the design process, students learn to approach their projects in a non-linear way, combining their imagination with a conscious thought process to come up with creative problem-solving answers.  Librarians themselves should be using a similar non-linear process; as much as students may need to embrace failures as a part of the creative process, librarians have the same need.  One example of this that many librarians may be familiar with at this time is Second Life.  It was thought that Second Life was a digital tool that could be used to connect with distance learners in a personalized environment.  What librarians found instead was that students generally preferred online conferencing tools and could build the same connections with those (Murray, 2015).

Rather than admitting defeat with Second Life, many librarians brainstormed for new ideas to build connections.  Success has been found by some librarians, such as Jameson (2021).  Using the design process to try new methods of connecting with students, gathering feedback and trying again as needed, Jameson found a mix of personal gifs and videos helped students get to know their teacher and librarian, even in virtual learning environments.  Furthermore, the librarians in this scenario used the opportunity to teach students and teachers how to use the tools to create their own reaction gifs for the class.  In a similar scenario, librarians found that supporting teachers led to opportunities to teach students to use digital tools for their creative pursuits.  By working together, librarians taught teachers and students to research and create content for an online school repository; this repository was made with the intent to be used by future students in teachers in their own creative endeavors (Turner & Lucas, 2018). 

While technology can be a great tool to support and teach creativity, there are considerations librarians and teachers should make.  First and foremost is ensuring educational equity; not all students have equal access to technological tools (Evans, 2018).  This can be addressed with school-supplied laptops or tablets.  Evans (2018) found that having access to this technology increased student retention of certain tasks and enhanced their learning experiences through internet research.  Another consideration, especially for librarians, is making sure that if data is collected it is managed ethically.  Sheriff, Benson and Atwood (2019) specifically mention digital learning objects that are created by librarians to teach students asynchronously, such as LibGuides and quizzes, where data may then be stored by the librarians for future use.  They suggest making use of best practices regarding the collection and retention of this data.

 As Vygotsky’s Theory of Creative Imagination outlines, children learn creativity at different stages through a variety of social interactions and directed thought processes (Smolucha & Smolucha, 1986).  Librarians do have a role in supporting and teaching creativity, although they may have to approach it indirectly depending on their access to a class.  By including technology in their toolkit to introduce students to research as a part of creative thinking and creative imagination, librarians can help teach students creativity in many different ways.  While some of the more commonly thought of library tools to support creativity include makerspaces, librarians can also teach teachers and students to use other tools to create online repositories, reaction gifts, and more for their creative pursuits.  The technology used to teach and support creativity does not have to be expensive or take up valuable real estate – some of it is freely available online.  Librarians can also help support creativity by giving students a platform to showcase their creativity and talk about the process or their progress using online podcasts, blogs, or sites.  There are many tools that can be used, and it is not a “one-size-fits-all.”  Each library and student may have different needs.

References

Abram S. (2015). Real makerspaces in school libraries. Internet@Schools, 22(1), 10-11.

Costello, D. (2015). Grazing, looping, and skimming: Understanding students’ digital habits. Internet@Schools, 22(1), 6-9.

Eash, E. K. (2006). Podcasting 101 for K-12 librarians. Computers in Libraries, 26(4).

Evans, J. A. (2018). The educational equity imperative: Leveraging technology to empower learning for all. SpeakUp. https://tomorrow.org/speakup/speakup2017-educational-equity-imperative-september2018.html

Fuchs, C., & Medved, P. (2019). Creative invention: The art of research and writing. In G. Veach (Ed.), Teaching information literacy and writing studies (vol. 2, pp. 93-104). Purdue University.

Jameson, A. (2021). Virtual interactive landscapes: Hold the Bitmoji. Teacher Librarian, 48(3), 40-43.

Murray, J. A., Hale, F., & Dozier, M. (2015). Use and perceptions of Second Life by distance learners: A comparison with other communication media. International Journal of E-Learning & Distance Education, 30(2), 1-22.

Shapiro, S. D. (2016). Engaging a wider community: The academic library as a center for creativity, discovery, and collaboration. New Review of Academic Librarianship, 22(1), 24-42. https://doi.org/10.1080/13614533.2015.1087412

Sheriff, G., Benson, D., & Atwood, G. S. (2019). Practices, policies, and problems in the management of learning data: A survey of libraries’ use of digital learning objects and the data they create. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 45(2), 102-109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2018.12.005

Smolucha, L., & Smolucha, F. C. (1986). L. S. Vygotsky’s theory of creative imagination.

Turner, H., & Lucas, P. L. (2018). Curating technology for learning: A faculty view. Library Technology Reports, 54(4), 10-18.