How the Creativity Crisis Presents a New Chapter in Mobile App Development

This post summarizes the three-part series recently published by Ann My Thai, Assistant Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and Andy Russell from Launchpad Toys. In the series, they discuss the Creativity Crisis, theories of creative learning, and the role technology can play in fostering creativity. Lorraine Akemann, Editor at Moms With Apps, summarizes their posts specifically for parents and mobile app developers who want to identify creative, open-ended play opportunities on digital platforms.

In Ann’s first post, she describes the Creativity Crisis and the need for finding a solution (Transforming Children’s Learning to Address America’s Creativity Crisis):

• “In today’s difficult job market, which candidate is most appealing, the one who received a perfect SAT score, or the one that can offer the most creative solutions to a complex problem, such as stopping the spread of oil along the Gulf Coast?   The July 10 Newsweek magazine cover story, “The Creativity Crisis” by Po Bronson and Ashley Merriman, featured new evidence that American creativity has been in significant decline over the past two decades.”
• “Bronson and Merryman suspect the number of hours kids spend watching TV and playing video games are partly to blame for the decline in U.S. creativity, and also point to a dearth of creative activities offered in American schools. However, a number of experts believe that technology-supported tools carry vast potential to provide children with opportunities to learn and create.”

In their second post, Ann and Andy cover different theories of creativity and how they relate to learning (Learning Across Silos: An Integrated Approach to the Creativity Crisis):

• Divergent Thinking: Divergent thinking is our cognitive ability to think outside the box and see things not for what they are, but for what they could be.
• Constructionism: A process by which kids can “learn by doing”. Constructionist learning tools position users as active creators, designers, and builders of content and knowledge as opposed to passive recipients.
• Design Thinking and System Thinking: Design Thinking has emerged as a process that fosters innovation. It is a multidisciplinary approach that applies tools, such as brainstorming, rapid prototyping and scenario building, to identify problems and craft solutions. System thinking, a central tenet of design thinking, encourages taking a whole system perspective in dealing with an integrated, complex world. Designers consider the relationship between wholes and their parts, identify interactions between all the relevant parts, and understand the consequences of these interactions. A growing number of experts believe System Thinking is crucial in addressing the greatest social and global problems of the 21st century.

In the third and final post, they address which types of tech tools enable open-ended, creative play (Tech Supported Tools to Foster Kids Creativity):

• Hayes Raffle, Principal Researcher at Nokia Research Labs and designer of open-ended toys ZOOB! and Topobo says “Most digital tools today are like puzzles rather than like paint brushes – children can discover what designers have hidden inside them, and every child makes the same discoveries. With a paint brush, every child learns how to paint, but each makes something different, and those paintings each mean something personal to the children who made them.”
• Matrix of digital creativity tools: “A growing number of children’s digital media aspires to offer kids creative opportunities. A chart of children’s digital creativity tools is available here with respect to platform and type of activity.”

So all this being said….what can WE do, as mobile app developers, or as parents choosing content for our kids, to support creative learning on a digital platform?

1. Ask some basic questions about the app in consideration.

• Does the app have characteristics of puzzle, or a paintbrush?
• Can the child steer the experience, make decisions, see consequences, and then go back and change, create, or experiment with outcomes?
• Is the ‘outcome’ or ‘product’ of the app limited, or limitless?

2. Get familiar with the tools in the matrix.

• What features stir creativity?
• What elements spark the most new conversations with your child?
• What does the nearest child think about it? How would THEY improve it?
• What features can YOU, as a developer for mobile platforms, implement more creatively?

3. Do your homework.

• READ: The Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop provides a LONG LIST of research papers and reports to help decipher healthy intersections between kids and technology. Topics cover innovation & learning, intergenerational play, content analysis of the App Store, impacts of multitasking, and the potential of new media.
• WATCH: Supplement your research by watching the Joan Ganz Cooney Center introductory video, which talks about the topic: “How can emerging media help children learn?”

By examining apps more closely, by understanding characteristics that encourage creativity, and by validating design concepts with proven research, developers will be better equipped to tap into the creative potential of digital platforms for kids. As a Mom, with an App, I find this quite uplifting.